Chapter Forty-Three:

1981-1986

August, 1981-February, 1986 Captain Britain (Marvel Super-Heroes UK No. 377-388, Daredevil UK 1-11, Mighty World of Marvel UK 7-16, Captain Britain UK 1-14) by A. Davis, N. Davis, Farmer, H. Nally, E. Fell, J. O’Conner, Aldrich, Craddock, A. Parkhouse, Thorpe, Neary, Moore, Delano, Collins, Tomlinson + Jaye, Hampson, Gill & Rimmer

Mixtape Tracks: Japanese Boy by Aneka; Tainted Love by Soft Cell; Prince Charming by Adam Ants; Every Little Thing She Does is Magic by The Police; Don’t You Want Me by Human League; The Model by Kraftwerk; Town Called Malice by The Jam; House of Fun by Madness; Goody Two Shoes by Adam Ant; Eye of the Tiger by Survivor; Pass the Dutchie by Musical Youth; Do You Really Want to Hurt Me by Culture Club; Down Under by Culture Club; Let’s Dance by David Bowie; Every Breathe You Take by The Police; Here Comes the Raine Again by Eurythmics; Hold Me Now by Thompson Twins; Don’t You by Simple Minds

Chapter 43, of “to me my ❌-Men,” a Bets origin story…and way to much more Alan Davis.

Previously on “to me my ❌-Men,” way back in Chapter 23, The Hand have been in the shadows, as multiple influences have been, like last we saw Logan and Ororo’s flirt Yukio, hanging awkwardly with Kitty’s Dad and Logan. Logan’s true love, Mariko, and a kid in her charger was saved by Kitty. The last time we saw Lockheed may be when Kitty and him reunited after her return from Japan. Illyana did great.

In Chapter 28, we had been introduced, but didn’t get bogged down in Nazi twins Fenris. This also marks, the last time we saw Cain, who was interrupted from hitting a bank…or banking like a normal person…and walked off to find another financial institution. Cain walk off scenes are great.

The last time we saw the Shadow King, in Chapter 29, he was in passion of Xuân, but he lurks on background, still has a role to play in our “ending.” This is also around the time we are introduced to Guido via Lila’s doorway…thus getting into see Xuân, who is now back with her old classmates.

While in the same chapter, The Defenders eroded into not even roommates, making it the last we heard from Cloud’ Bobby’s queer love interest, Moondragon, Gargoyle, and Brunnhilde, the scene had migrated to New Mexico, at WWIII’s place, but they were not there once we got to the news about Jean, and ❌-Factor gets off the ground.

Chapter 22, the last time we actually saw Forge, who has set in motion a number of issues we are facing here. We remain patient for his return. As we do for Longshot, from his epic beginning in Chapter 32.

By Chapter 34, Chuck had been a shadow more than a participant. After getting messed up on the streets by anti-mutant bigots and saved by The Morlock, in Chapter 26, has been in space, “recovering,” hanging with his lover, Lilandra, and Scott’s other absentee father, Corsair, and his team of our old friend Carol (whose powers and persona are in Rogue, + Carol is Binary at the moment), Hepzibah, Ch’od, Cr’reee, Raza, Sikorskyan, an after thought for years now.

In Chapter 37, the holidays have Morlocks and Asguards at versions stages of invitations and other obligations with regard to Katie’s party. Cloak and Dagger joined in here, last we saw. The light mood here is a bridge from a kidnapping plot spurned by the death of Annalee’s children and the creepiness of Caliban to the presupposes of death we stand in front of at this point, halfway through the epic story we are spinning. Callisto, has maintained the keeper of culture and a gracious second to Ororo. Annalee the critical source of emotional range, Sunder must have been seen since, but I last remember him holding her murdered children, a critical moment to recall right now; Masque has been frightening in their cultural role; Beautiful Dreamer has been ceremonial; Ape, Erg, and Tar Baby has gone from facilitators of problems to facilitators of solutions; the Piper has done what you expect and guided various threads along, Healer has healed, Bulk and Glow Worm messengers in life and death; Skids has tensioned from an outsider guardian to a companion for Rusty, who is only helped by her presence, as he was by Artie. Artie has a new best friend, and Caliban has a budding guardianship. While in Asgard, BillSif remain a thing. Thor be it frog or man, seems to be in transition in more than one context.

Building on Chapters 29 & 38 provides pay off for Brunnhilde’s appearances. She is still in our mind as Ororo and most recently Dani, have kept Valkyries relevant to our story, which is also why our friend Death shows up on occasion. Which is why we know Death is larger than Hela and more beautiful…which seems like crazy talk. Brightwind being a key member of our growing ❌-pets. Who we last saw in a Colorado barn with Dani, and Dani’s questions about loss, maintaining balance. Dani had left NY, where Stevie and Maggie are taking care of Tom and Sharon who were left in the cold by Empath, as Maggie was closing down the school. The Mutants had temporarily joined the Hellions and Emma, with Jimmy, Empath, Jennifer, Haroun and Marie-Ange. It has been a minute since we had seen or heard from Belasco, but S’ym was becoming a regular in linking Limbo and Illyana’s stories. In the same chapter, the one that alternated between “middle age” mutants, and “teen” mutants, we last saw Candy on the phone with WWIII, who was in the middle of one of his intimate chats with Jean. In this chapter we also catch up with Lila and Alison, as things get rocky, but at least Sam and Lila fix their relationship in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Chapters 34 & 39 brings in a broad sampling and focused immersion into the connective tissue of Marvel, as Reed was consulting with WWIII on the Jean coming back from the presumed dead, but we have spent time thinking about and even spending time with folks associated with the Fantastic Four, because of WandaVision, like Agatha, who was a nanny and is now a ghost, as we checked in with Maggie’s twins and son-in-law, and his “brothers.” This was also the last time we had seen Gyrich, though his Bill are regularly influencing events. Thus we have seen Peter show up a few times now, as well as, Avengers form East and West, current and former like, Cap, Janet, Hank, Clint, Patsy, Simon, Tigra, Monica, Bobbi. Agatha and Reed show up often enough, and we see or hear of Sue, Ben, Jen, and Johnny, as Franklin is a regular at the point, because he spends a lot of time with the Powers Kids, for holidays and such. James and Margaret’s kids have been integral to our story. Julie, Alex, Jack and especially Katie Powers. This may also have been the last time we heard of ROM, who has been integral on background to what is happening with The Bill, Ororo’s loss of powers, and everything to do with Forge up to this point.

We stop in with our Canadian friends, within Chapters 29 & 40; Madison, Heather, Walter, Narya, Jean-Paul, Aurora, attend the wedding of Marrina and K’uk’ulkan are married, Micheal was worried about Elizabeth, as parents do, but most importantly Puck and Dimond Lil were flirt fighting, our cheeky kinky power fantasy.

Where we pick The Mutants; Rahne, Xuân, Dani, Berto, Amara, Doug, Warlock, Illyana had come back together, and been traveling again, Scotland visiting Moira, Sean (?), Jaime (?), and saving David again from himself.

In between, AKA chapter 41, the seeds we grew in Chapter 3 have blossomed and the died, and now are replanted in chapter 41, as, Matt and Nat have been dealing with some Nuke aftermath, (which may have been the last time we actually saw Tony, though he comes up here and there), as Matt tries to recover from Wilson destroying his life. Karen, Ben, and Foggy all being caught up in it. Frank is off who knows where and it has been even longer since Elektra mixed it up with Matt, and we began to see the dominos fall, with Ben, as The Hand become central in building Matt and Logan’s world. A world that would eventually pull in Kitty, our POV character.

While not our fav hench romance, The Ballad of Harvey and Janet, former Hellfire goons Angelo Macon, Murray Reese, Wade Cole had spent time in with Rita AKA Spiral, and formed a new arch splinter group with process that bring Arize and Mojo’s work from Longshot and intersects it with Canada’s Weapon ❌ program into the body of Yuriko, who is also a patron of the Body Shop, and daughter of the initial scientist behind the Weapon ❌ methodology, The Reavers had failed to take out Logan and his cub for the evening, Katie Powers.

In our latest chapter, 42, the one that alternated between the “middle aged” mutants and the current proper ❌-Men, we last saw Candy’s old ménage à trois (with Kurt Don Juan Wagner), Amanda in her day job, on a TWA flight over the arctic north headed to So Cal, nursing a broken heart over Kurt. This is also latest word of Lila, as Kitty goes to see her on a non date in SF, before their hosts home (who also houses Jessica Drew, not to be confused with Julia, or Valerie) is remodeled by Freedom Force and they thus head back to NYC.

We haven’t seen Maddy and Nate for a few chapters, but they are absolutely part of the story, even driving elements of it. They did show in a photo and Amanda flew over their head perhaps. Though there is a question of their current whereabouts.

In this we not only get more aquatinted with our frienemies Tower, Frenzy, Stinger, and Timeshadow, but we are introduced to their leader and one of the key actors behind the scenes, Apocalypse. We plan on stealing clear of that dude (though in the 21st century he becomes kinda great for a minute). The crux of the story here, centers around one of multiple deaths in the chapter, that seems to be foreshadowing our present context. I felt the loss hard and hold onto that feeling. Micheal Nowlan left a mark.

Vera has been working with Cameron in support of ❌-Factor, but it is clear Vera is relentlessly pro mutant and Cameron seems to have an agenda that could very well be the opposite.

After having delivered the news of the suicide, we next see Maggie on the street another day, nearly being attacked by Jean, who sees him out an about for the first time, and is unaware of how he has turned things around and how the world sees him at this point.

Scott and Hank are in the Morlock tunnels tracking down Artie. WWIII and Jean have Rusty and Skids with them, taking them back to ❌-Factor office for assessment and healing of Rusty...maybe.

We had last seen Selene, Shaw, Harry, Tessa, Honkey Panther and the passing of Harry Leland, in the Park, with dual narratives there involving Nimrod and Freedom Force forcing the story from above into the Morlock Tunnels. Val is with Freedom Force back at the Pentagon and is not to pleased with the results. Avalanche and Spider-Woman (Julia) Pyro is Pyro, as he and Blob struggle to find the line of their new position. Pushing Mystique into a plan to use Trish to expose WWIII and ❌-Factor as Mutants and former ❌-Men.

Rachel was last seen with Spiral in the Body Shop, after recovering from Logan nearly killing her, and her wondering the park, being hunted by Hellfire and ❌-Men. Ororo, Logan, Rogue, Piotr, Kitty, and Rogue having worked together with the Hellions to thwart Nimrod in the Park…but they are now all running away from the cops.

Kurt attempted in the park to teleport a portion of Nimrod, and in agony disappeared.

That's right folks we have arrived at our halfway point...and in celebration we enter into a portal, for some fans a personal hellscape. I am in no way one of these fans. We are introducing Captain Britain. Both Brian and Betsy. Because out newest ❌-Men is Betsy Braddock AKA Psylocke AKA Captain Britain.

"my ❌-Men "is starting to form...we just need a few more key pieces here.

I am unwilling to flip back a page or so, and find out. It’s bad enough I am reading a digital copy. I paid, but was not willing to pay the prices out there for these paper pages. I have the end of the story, but, I have for decades now, wondered what the Alan Moore experience is like with this world. Word it is amongst his greatest work. We will get into that, don’t y’all worry. And since I already am here, I might as well see what it was like when my hero Alan Davis started here. I am questioning myself right off. I can’t blame, Moore, or the writer here, Dave Thorpe, or Alan Davis himself…though suddenly realizing…this is going to be rough for a minute. Still better than I. I am asking what the fuck is a Jackdaw!?! Dez Skinn, Steve Parkhouse, Paul Nary and John Stoke’s Hulk Comic UK character from the pages of the Captain Britain story, “The Black Knight,” is falling with Brian Braddock towards Earth. Brian’s costume has changed from his ornately noble original costume to the streamlined modern Union Jack. They seem to be floating through time and space, perhaps dimensions, as I believe Arthur and definitly Merlin discuss the elf and the superheroes journey commencing on the page. Merlin assures the King this is Brian’s DESTINY. A word worthy of our transitions between chapters of “to me my ❌-Men.” They land in a pile of money and we have our first appearance of the Crazy Gang; Conjurors (new to me, remind me of the Thompson Twins), Coco, and Jack of Hearts. If comics are about the vibes. And they are. This is one of those, to be sure.

"The Return of Captain Britain"

Brian: “Those chaps are up to no good.”

(He will be drinking a cold one soon I expect).

Coco: “We’ve been tumbled! Get ‘Im lads!”

(Endearing)

The fight is not going great for the elf and Brian, and that is before The Executioner, Jim Jaspers Mad (like dressed to the nine clownish hobo British Dick Dastardly), Queen of Hearts, and Tweedledope show up. The Gang was an instant classic when I was introduced to them (we will get there) and here, they are less refined, the drawing anatomy can be rough at times, but still fun.

Queen of Hearts: “Orf win ‘is ‘sad!”

“The Executioner moves silently forward.”

I would be years before, Alan Davis could work with this text and make it terrifying. But he gets there.

Brian takes care of business and some of his drinking buddies, notice The Executioner fly through a window into the evening sky. Brian exits the same window, not knowing what floor he is on, and worried he can’t fly without a seater that vanished in travel to Earth…but he can. He is essentially Superman. As the Thompson Twins shoot their firecrackers at Brian, he wonders where the elf got off to.

Japsers invites Brian for tea, but then when Brian has other plans, he tosses the teapot and it explodes. The Elf shows and rescues Brian from this Crazy Gang. They stop the bank robbery, and let some change fall to the drunks. The Crazy Gang escapes in a Cooper piloted by Dormouse. That’s when Brian notices something is up with the money and the political posters near by.

I am realizing…the Brian will get a major upgrade on elves down the road.

Jackdaw likes to invoke phrases like: "Merlin's beard!"

Another reason you may feel like you are in a Tintin adventure...or perhaps another Franco Belgian comic, Smurfs.

The copers have cornered Brian and the elf with other...

OUTCASTS

Brain is asking them the year and who the prime minster is. Oh dear...he doesn't yet realize how quickly the Brits politic elections and how often Brian dimensionally travels.

One of them offers Brian a drink. Brian says, "no." Is this Brian!?

The elf takes the drink and downs it, like this scene is ripped from the pages of Elf Quest. Brian slaps the bottle from him, and physically intimidates his sidekick, as the sidekick infers Merlin wanted them here. Brian, unsatisfied has the elf find Merlin and gain clarity. The elf is like, oh right that's my thing; Elf of the Order of Chthonos, "inter-dimensional hoping." "...the elf disappears for the final time."

As Brian and the Outcasts scratch their heads, behind them assembles The Junkheap That Walked Like A Man and honestly, in the decade of robots, this one is way cooler then it sounds, at first glance. It uses a sonic attack on Brian. Brian flys after it as it heads towards Tower Bridge, laser beaming The Boroughs.

We are have flashes of the Alan Davis we expect, like this drawing of Brian...but it will take the entire chapter to get on model and for the anatomy to be as you expect from one of the greatest to ever pick up a pencil. We are witnessing him do the work. A lesson I am familiar with myself.

THE JUNKHEAP THAT WALKED LIKE A MAN

Having been down this road, it makes sense that the Junkheap robot appears well rendered in sectional closeups and Brian is starting to look on model when he is full sized and taking up a sixth of the page. These times when Alan doesn't need tools to assist with perspective or angles, and it is when his muscle memory works on model with the character he is most comfortable drawing...the one he has been now for pages. The rest are rubbish, as it is complete disinteresting, laborious, and unpracticed work, that he is clearly just trying to get done on dealine. You can tell.

Thank goodness for Jenny's coloring. It saves pages here.

At the bridge things go from bad to worse. It's kinda funny, but the bridges in NYC and SF are so much more impressive, that this Tower Bridge scene is underwelming in part, because there simply is not enough space to make it meaningful to my American eyes. And then you have Brian in a 1/12th of the page vertical panel attempt to emulate the iconic Superman lift a car image...and the panel boarders simply don't allow for the impact to not be lost in translation. The Junkheap is also loosing our interest.

The military police, remind me of Vixen's Mob, who all make debuts in various Captain Britain comics over the years.

The Junkheap has the jump on Brian, as he is destracted by these police...who are letting him know, superheroes are illegal.

Brian takes care of the Junkheap for the moment and then negotiates with the police to allow for further investigation into the robot. And they listen. The absurdity.

In the river the Junkheap turns its attention towards fluid.

And so Brian is now up a drainpipe in search of its source as the cops fire bullets on the other end thinking he has not been compliant. This is where he discovers a rat out of Beatrix Potter named Algernon. Who is has a proper tea, and is offering Brian to join.

Well I'll be a monkeys uncle...the rat has a stack of books and they are literally Beatrix Potter, Edward VII, and The History of Britain.

THE AVANT-GUARD & ALGERNON THE RAT THING

IN SUPPORT AT DAWN

Introductions are made and tea is drank.

They are being observed by camera. A classic comic observation booth with many screens and computerized controls is being manned by a Dimples:

"Your whyness."

Her whyness is Saturnyne, not at all on model and recognizable...and unfortunately reality...but we note this, all the same...because we are here in part for Saturnyne.

She is being interrupted as she is meeting with some important folks about "The Push."

So Dimples, dismissed calls in the Avant-Guard. Who approach Algernon and Brian's tea, at the moment that the elf pops back into the story, looking like a surfer cliche with a smily face tank top, flowered board shorts and a board to boot. Hijinks ensue as they are ambushed. The Avant-Guard zap Brian and turn him into a monkey.

That was:

In Support of Darwin

This is:

RE-BIRTH!

The Avant-Guard, who look like classic white gentlemen in black, with pinstripe pants, derbies upon their heads, and hold umbrellas, only the umbrella's shoot things like devolving rays, and their "minds are like oceans!" They have Brain the ape, and Jackdaw the surfering elf.

Well they seem entirely disinterest in Brian the Ape.

In Whitehall, the home secretary of clenches his teeth (something we should do 15 minutes a day...but many do far more...like all day)...is he in search of Brian the ape? Or some other sup?

The elf is being held by an advanced tech analysis machine, and being interrogated by a Saturnyne, who is slowly being cartooned by Davis into who what will become an on model beauty icon. Jackdaw, will talk once Brian is Brian again. We learn more from this interrogation about Saturnyne, then from the elf. She is open to these options "and she was posted to this hole by the Dimensional Development Court..."

Fans of the Multiverse can celebrate.

They have a court.

This version of Earth (238...not 616) is the most primitive (Misery, Greed, Repression, War, Misuse of Power)she tell us. It must reach enlightenment (Peace, Reason) by 2000. Hah! Earth-1218 is FUCKED! The elf has caught Saturnyne in a villainous soliloquy... and now he is stroking her ego...or taken in by her words...convinced she has and is just doing her important work. Meanhile on the side and bottom of the page, Brian the ape is being effected by liquid that he tracked into this pipe in the first place. It has evolved him back into a better than ever classic version of himself. Not sure about all this...but this is comics.

Saturnyne thinks she has recruited herself a cute elf, who says, "Aw, give over!" as Brian busts in:

"Disengage that elf!"

Brian at the very least has improved speed.

Wow, Saturnyne, just reveals her plan to anyone. She is just to proud of it. Brian followed the liquid from the pipe to this secret lair, and Saturnyne has been planing on using the liquid to evolve the inhabitants of planet Earth-238. The plan of course being called: "The Push."

Brian has her...and this is over...it seems.

She is not even on model yet.

She claims to be a good "guy."..er..."gal," and the dumb elf backs her up. She claims nobody believes her on this planet. Reminder there are no "good guys...or gals," just as there are no "bad guys...or gals." Oh...the binary is entrenched. And like two pages earlier the side and bottom have a plot building to enter the main scene (a clever device, I need to note). Here we have the Status Crew, government anti-sup, blue costumed, face exposed, gun touting, headphone communicator sporting, hench. Basically the lazy plot device needed to convince those not from the future to believe Saturnyne's "story."

*Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, & Lynn Verley’s Batman: The Dark Night Returns*

Way back in 1982, Chris Claremont, Herb Trimpe, Fred Kida, Marie Severin, Irving Watanabe, Larry Lieber and Neil Tennant's 1976 creation Brian Braddock AKA Captain Britain's character's story continued in:

AGAINST THE REALM

I think I became aware of British Marvel comics through a typical after Middle school hang my best friends, at the time. Gabe had just gotten back from a family trip there, and was showing Todd and I a Death's Head comic. Probably his debut. Then E❌calibur came out at the end of that year, introducing me to Captain Britain, Maggen, Technet's, Saturnyne, etc...as an extension of the X-Men. Sometime the following year, I got my video copy of How To Draw The Marvel Way, and Stan mentions the British line. That same year, I would finally get, my hands my TPB copy of "Before Excalibur...Captain Britain," which picks up the story in 1984. For decades I have wondered about these pages, because of Alan Davis's influence on my artwork, fandom, and this story. But it is just now that I am in the midst of seeing what was rumors, speculation, and educated guessing.

So, as I was saying, January, 1882...

As we may have guessed, the Status Crew was sent by the Home Secretary. There has been an anti-vigilante law on the books in Earth-238's Britain since 1971, that is used as a an anti-supe law. Brian is under arrest. Brian has been displaying a variety of energy based powers, like this forcefield he is using here. He is already super strong, can fly, and has invulnerability. He saves the elf and Saturnyne.

The Status Crew have tech that allows for an analysis of Brian. They ditermin his suit is arcane, and utilizes amplified brain waves through his helmet, driven by his mental concentration to have these powers. They seek to disrupt his concentration. As part of the coinciding side and bottom plot, Saturnyne has instructed the Avant-Guard to focus on protecting what is hers in the room, which is everything.

The Status Crew are caught off guard by the Avant-Guard. Delicious! As it should be. They are hit by warp poweres out of the umbrellas and many disapear, to the horror of the Status Crew. Some are clearly upset, and assume this tech is advanced, thus they are "reds," (USSR?). Others focus on Saturnyne, and in doing so are tossed by her, drawn in a seductively sexy way for the first time...which is a set up the pages ending, for the toss and our first kinky power fantasy here:

"Face it gentleman. You just don't know how to handle a lady."

The page has so much going for it, and you can see cornels of the ability to execute something that would blow your hair back on a number of different levels. Unfortunately for us, we are simply still getting our sea legs.

The Status Crew force, seems overwhelming in numbers. And now they have a sonic attack to use on Brian. And on this page that begins to work against Brian, which for the the art team, lead by Davis is making it work nearly on model here, with again excellent coloring choices. You can feel and see, Brian being overtaken in smartly done layout, and the artists finding ways to improve the quality of the comic.

But wait, like the art team, Brian is resilient, when Status Crew, with another weapon sited on him set to fire, the elf jumps to protect his partner in crime fighting, and sacrifices himself. Brian is to late and at the wrong angle to help anyway. The close up panel in the off center of the page, of Brian's despair is the first time Alan Davis really nails the execution of something that that is of a varied size with that has been mostly working on the page, thus far. This larger image of Brian's face, may actually be the most effective or at least effecting element in the story so far. A payoff for the corniness, that marks the strength of these Alan Davis comics, going back to this moment. WHEN THINGS SEEM BONKERS in Alan Davis comics, seem like they are about to snap the tether to reality we have depended on, unlike Looney toons, the cartooning doesn't smack you in the face with the punch line. It punches you in the gut with a reflection of the horrors of our reality. Here it is death. Often it is something worse than death. That's what to expect from this chapter.

"JACKDAW...YOU LITTLE...f o o l!"

Brian's inertia has him Alan Davis signature crumpling to the floor.

Saturnyne, unaffected by the death of an elf and the emotional toll of Brian's loss, demands he fix what is broken in within her concerns for herself...her stuff...she calls him an "idiot!" in the process. Brian simply states his ability to do anything anyone asks of him:

"I can't."

We are witnessing a transition from classic comics cliché feeding the lowly reputation it had developed into something worthy of our time and the mediums future.

The Welsh folk hero, Y Gododdin, a character developed through Matter of Britain, was of magical folklore, said to have battled the supernatural of otherwold, who also took on the Anglo-Saxons, as a post-Roman Briton, at the turn of the 6th century. When Geoffrey of Monmouth began to tell the story in the 12th century, the story began to stick, as we widely know it. The story of King Arthur. In 1943, Timely comics' Krazy Komics No. 11's, during the Al Jaffee Era of the comic title, editor, Vincent Fago worked with unknown creators to introduce King Arthur into what would be known as Marvel, and Earth-616.

As part of Geoffrey's spinning of the legendary tale of Arthur, he combined two Welsh tellings of Briton prophets, Myrddin & Ambrosius, to create Merlyn the magician. In 1943, Timely's, introduction of Merlyn into Marvel and Earth-616, was by Dan Barry and Allen Bellman, in Young Allies No. 11.

Captain Britain is left drained and powerless. Saturnyne...

"In that case, I shale take matters into my own hands."

...wields and umbrella.

FACES OF BRITAIN!

Brian recovers enough to assist in a plan, as they and Dimples are all that is left against the remaining Status Crew. The Avant-Guard have been overwhelmed and eliminated. So Brian draws the Status Crew's attentions and makes a brake for it.

Saturnyne has a stockpile of life enhancing fluid barrels for "The Push" to provide to the entire population of London. Brian offers to transport it, while also fighting blue goons.

He takes the first barrel and splashes it over the Status Crew.

It's really hilarious, because they do come to realise the absurdity of thier position in life, but they still fall to a base instinct as the bottom line. How can they seek to harm someone with "beauty" such as Saturnyne. The Push is just as we suspected if this is the result.

Brian walks the streets, without his costume, not quite looking himself yet, in thought of his situation; loss of companion, loss of home, suspicion of criminal intent, in a world not quite right, stranded...the question of Merlyn's intentions with sending him here, to this supposed destiny. His noir detective internal monologue is interrupted by...

"Autumn an' I'm seven."

Who is desperate for necessity, and provides the antidote we needed to the whiteness that has been this chapter up until this moment. But Brian has nothing to offer, Autumn, so as Alan Davis draws an innocent child with skilled accuracy, he creates a side of Brian that frames him in the “to me my -Men" traditional theme of kidnapping, as instead of nourishment he offers, magic. And the child is swept up and taken in by this. They fly away.

"Oh gosh!"

Flying in Brian's arms, Autumn speaks to the dreadful world he and his father inhabit, Brian's new home, he speaks of a fantasy of he and his Pa being rescued by magic forces. Autumn, Brian, and the city of London on Earth-238, are viewed through magic, from Earth-616's Merlyn, and his king, Arthur, and an alive and well Jackdraw the elf.

FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS

Brian: "So why do I feel like a double agent?"

...considers Brian, in the midst of reframing his perspective and recounting the evidence he gathered to arrive at this change in actions and compatriots. He sees this as fighting Fascism in the us v them mold, but will he see he come back to the view point of seeing the Authoritarianism brand he is enabling. Around this thinking, is the story of star crossed friends, Jeff and Sharon. Who are from two different neighbourhoods, and on Earth-238, much like on Earth-616, and Earth-1218, there factions within these geographical communities that use identity politics to maintain the broader power structures in control over them through fear and hate of the other. Brain having literally drunk the cool aid, may be to reliant on "The Push," of the juice provided by Satrunyne to resolve these contexts over night. Brian has rescued Jeff from Sharon's hood, and they are in Jeff's where his hood is primed for mob justice. Alan Davis, inches closer and closer towards being able to pull this off, but there are moments when time and his hand betrays him.

But first we have a comic, that is absent, David Thrope, and we get a taste of Paul Neary's writing. I can't explain this, but to say, perhaps they felt a less serious plot was needed to keep goofy fans invested, or Thorpe couldn't meet a deadline, or that impression that Stan Lee often portrayed of not wanting to take any of this seriously...well maybe the was more the truth...honestly I don't get why this apparently Earth-616, Alan Davis comic exists here. I like the title. Maybe even the concept of... A

TTACK OF THE BINARY BEINGS

However, the unremarkably rendered space adventure of Brian and the elf being kidnapped (both) and tortured (the elf) by an alien who has singularly sought out and failed find and to enslave any intelligent mind, until possibly this moment; where the "high concept" gag is, that the being is of one mind and two bodies; one frail, the smart one, and one strong, the dumb one, is perplexed by Brian's mind and body being one, and thus are probing the elf, trying to get at his obvious to them intellectual mind. As Brian creates havoc on their ship, in rescuing the elf, the binary alien comes to the conclusion to late, that they are no match for beings who are both physical and intellectual (if you can call Brian and the elf this); in this moment they abort the plan, as the elf is instructed and follows Brian's lead to warp reality; which folds in on itself and Brian and the elf are left to float in nothingness, as "the wrecked alien battle cruiser has never existed, nor will it ever exist! It only exists for the instant this si now, though that element of time is itself becoming the past."

My head hurts...for absolutely no reason...but my head is attempting to trick me into considering there is reason.

IF THE PUSH SHOULD FAIL

Our odd little interlude in this odder still interlude now over, we continue on with The Weird (excellent, maybe fav DC comic of this era...er...late 80's not early 80's)...

"All over the UK, people (the Avant-Guard...ish) are pretending to be businessman...They're engaged in suspisious activities...but, they have your best interests at heart."

sure.

Dimples remains at operations control, updating Saturnyne of The Push's progress.

Meanwhile, Brian, fails to convince a mob of mob rule. It does bring up or wrestle with a modestly interesting concept. What role and how does the outsider reason with a community, when armed with an outside the box perspective, that they see of value to the community, is rejected without consideration or debate, when the community makes clear they are resistant to considering it, for they have no reason to trust who is delivering it, and the outsider is self aware enough to realize the community is at consensus to move forward and forgo further debate?

Brian, lets the corse of the community v community war pattern continue without his interference in this way, arriving on the ground at "The Push." Where he immediately is greeted with another philosophical debate with a member of the Avant-Guard pushing the juicey liquid into the water. Where has Brian been...he was apparently needed here. Well, if you must know, Brian was saving a singular life.

Avant-Guardsman: "There is more at stake than individual lives."

The issue has wonthing to do with reporting back and timing for mission security and success....bla bla bla...

The arguing goes sideways...as arguemnts do.

FUCK Jackdaw is back...from secretly hanging with Merlyn and Arthur in Earth-616's reality. He looks even worse...he has a cape.

He has a plan to deal with the neighborhoods beefing.

Brian uses his energy to create giant energy hands, dividing the waring crowds, and make a strongman's proclamation. Which is effective for only a moment. The moment the elf uses the mind control powers...we did not know he has...to entice the crowds to have tea...which of course has the juicy liquid of "The Push," in them. Essentially every element of this plan is villainy.

They join Saturnyne and the Avant-Guard in celebration of their choices leaning towards villainy...or as they see it, arching towards progress.

And on cue (I am reading this live...I did not know, I suspected..I was using my...)

Sara Pichelli, Brian Michael Bendis, Steve Ditko, Stan Lee, Rodney Rothman, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Dave Callahan, Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

"A crooked man smiled a crooked smile," Mad Jim Jaspers, plan is taking effect. As they all have forgotten about him, "and that was a mistek of terrible consequence. He lets them savour thier triumph a moment longer, and then his mind ("dark amusement park alive with nightmares") opens like a floodgate. The insanity within sllicing outwards...it ripples outward across the city, across the nation, a tidlewave of writhing lunacy. It engulfs everything and all that engulfs...the air grows till before it's coming, and at a secret base in London, the sound of festivity gutters, the laughter grown suddenly cold..."

Dimples: "Your whyness...look at the viewscreen!"

Saturnyne and Brian view a warped reality.

Brian's emergence has upended ten years of The Status Crew's superhero razed nation.

A CROOKED WORLD

The major has pieced together a hypothesis. Saturnyne & Brian mean inter-dimensional invasion. So he must call upon The Fury.

The page is a mess, but it's not wrong.

"Meanwhile in the Dimensional Development Court..."

A bit of a spat on who should do something to stop reality itself from being bent out of shape.

Never fear (Saturnyne & Brian), The Fury is here.

Organic and machine, a fun play with design, The Fury is.

It does it's thing, kill superheroes.

Which leaves Jackdaw and Saturnyne to interact on the common ground of being irrelevant to The Fury. An unfortunate reality for Brian.

Satrunyne has seen enough and summons her Avant Guard to surround her with open umbrellas; warp formation, and they are teleported away.

Dimples in his grief of being left behind, is relieved of the pain, by death from The Fury.

And thankfully, so goes Jackdaw.

We are cleaning house here.

An enraged Brian leaps off the page in an early piece of evidence that Alan Davis has this.

The Fury clarifies Brian's position. Its smashed on the ground.

Jim Jasper drops in from above...to the rescue?!

And with this Alan Moore has joined our ❌-Men creative team.

"...Data - impulses crackle along its spinewires. It estimates velocity and trajectory. It balances an eerie intuition against a cold, alien intellect...and then with silence that is chilling in anything so big, it tunes...and melts into the gathering fog like the shadow of a nightmare."

-Alan Moore

GRAVEYARD SHIFT

Brian suspects Jasper to be behind all this, so Jasper invites him to a villainous soliloquy and tea rendering of his origin story. Once an normal politician, things went sideways as they do. He invented the Fury and gave it to the Status Crew. He programed it to take on paranormals, other than himself. This is the part that gave Brian pause. And Jasper explained he is a mutant, with a brain that can warp reality. And so now Brian understands why everything is warped and by whom. The tea party is not just them, but many faces...including Jackdaws...all at a long table of villainy.

Brian is dropped from the flying villainy ship. And lands in a graveyard of "heroes."

The Arachnid

Gaath

Colonel Tusker

Android Andy

Iron Tallon

Captain Roy Risk

The Puppetman

Miracleman

Captain UK spared?!

"Why Merlin?"

The Fury torches Brian from behind.

Brian is deemed dead by The Fury.

A women in another universe feels shivers in this moment, as if someone walked on her grave. The grave: Captain UK.

Alan Moore began writing for Marvel in 1979. His last publication for Marvel was in 2015; Doctor Who Weekly, The Empire Strikes Back Monthly, Marvel Super-Heroes, Daredevils, Mighty World of Marvel, Mad Dog, Heroes for Hope Starring the X-Men, Epic Illustrated, Miracleman.

63 issues of comics magazines, all but one, an issue of Epic Illustrated, published in the UK.

Captain Britain: A Crooked World was published in Marvel Super-Heroes, in 1982.

"Once There Were Daemons" was published in Embryo No. 5, through Northampton Art Lab. Moore did the art and scripting for what may be his dabut work in 1971. Making him a true contemporary of Frank Miller. Despite his four years senior to Miller, the freshman. They began self-publishing approximately the same time, a "pond" between them. Moore at 18, Miller at 14 were making comics in the early days of the 70's. They would be accused of shaping the 80's, inheriting such accusations from Kirby and Ditko. Influencing all subsequent generations after them in some manner. Something all four cartoonist struggled with in their lifetimes.

Two years into his working with Marvel, Moore was also two years into writing for Sounds, a punk & metal magazine in the UK, and writing comics for 2000 AD, had just started with Eagle, begun Marvelman (with Alan Davis) at Warrior. 1982, we didn't quite know who he was yet here in the old US of A.

DC's The Saga of Swamp Thing, with our Vermont acquaintance, Stephen Bissette, was two years away. Watchmen would be 1986. Batman: The Killing Joke would be 1988. As was V for Vendetta. His work with Kitchen Sink would not begin till From Hell in 1991. His work at Image was early, but obviously not till 1993. America's Best Comics, which followed Marvel Knights 1998 efforts helped resuscitate superhero comics in 1999. Providence wouldn't be till 2015. The bulk of a career was a couple years away from beginning, but to Chris Claremont this was influential at a time Claremont was shaping comics.

What has been a page formatting doldrum of mediocrity in Marvel Super-Heroes is now thoughtful sequential art in Daredevils, as we utilize stout longshot panels to zoom in from outer space into father and daughters' laboratory, where Merlyn and Roma work their magic with:

A RAG, A BONE, A HANK OF HAIR

Moore sets up the context of loss, and then rebuilds the character as a body is regenerated.

We are reminded of his twin sister, Betsy, who are being raised in a class system that makes it seem like they have been reduced enough as a family to know what it is to miss wealth, but to the point that they are no longer wanted in such circles. Brian finds a world within books, which he balanced with girls. Where one night while on a date the twins parents died, and guilt set in for Brian. Brian then found work in the sciences. It "dulled the pain inside him." One night Joshua Stragg AKA the Reaver (interesting moniker link, speaking of destiny), attacked, pulling Brian into the night and a group of standing stones.

He becomes Captain Britain and joins folks like the Joe Maneely & Stan Lee's Black Knight AKA John Buscema & Roy Thomas's Dane Whitman in UK comics adventures. Father and daughter finishe their work, as Moore and Davis finish their catching the new titles audience up with their nearly seven year old characters back story. We have arived at 1983. And Brian is alive once more through the plot device of super science/magic. Awaking amongst stones in Darkmoor.

Roma questions her father. For he did not reveal himself to Brian. Merlyn:

"Show myself?

But which self?

This one?

He wouldn't have known me...

...and in the end this is for the best."

Moore and Davis working together in balanced utilitarian sequential art storytelling, as Merlyn reveals to the audience five different forms he has appeared in and we may find he will appear in. The one he has been is aligned with Roma's 80's forward thinking sci-fi aesthetic, that reminds me of some from Art Adams Mojoverse. Another is a classic circus cliché wizard garb. The next one invoking a Tollkien/Bakshi wizard. Followed by an insect modeled alien form. And then lastly, before returning to the Alan Davis on model, we see a Merlyn that brings the film Excalibur to mind.

Roma is left to pity Brian and shed a tear.

First Prologue: A well rendered woman (Linda McQuillan AKA Captain UK, (on Earth-238?!) in purple light suffers from an anxiety attack and in this moment of need for support, bends a metal support to the form of her hand..."if only she weren't so terribly helpless."

Second Prologue: The Fury must think, for the grave (on Earth-238?!) is marked with Captain Britain's name, but intuition says otherwise. Then the Fury will act.

Third Prologue: Merlyn and Roma observe a car through their viewing ball of light in their "Otherworld" (a pocket dimension that is adjacent to Earth-616 and serves as a nexus to other dimensions within the 616 and beyond in the multiverse) garden. Satisfied with the physical results, they are cautious about the mental health of Brian.

"September 9th, 1982"

The cabby has been talking politics. Something about sending the S.A.S. to deal with the Argies, as they arrive west of the North Sea, the South Eastern coast of England, in Essex, the town of Maldon, on Earth-616, at Braddock Manor....uh...

An Englishman's Home...

"co-creators Alan Moore & Alan Davis. Letters Jenny O'Conner. Editor - Bernie Jaye"

Brian, returned from northern England's Darkmoor, is stunned to see the place not in rubble. I am stunned that they tried to sell a poor Brian story and then turn and give him a mansion. Well...I saw this coming. So not stunned.

Steve Rodgers and Brian Braddock nearly got blowed up last time he was here...in this reality...on this Earth...Brian questions his own mental health.

Brian thinks of his childhood with Jaime (brother), Betsy (twin), Mum, Dad when Emma Collins greets him. Emma is the constant presence in this place. Housekeeper by appearance, charwomen of the manor by practice. She was Jaime's nanny, and then a decade later was had the same role in the twins life. We adore Emma from go.

Emma is off to tell Brian's folks of his arrival. Which is disturbing to Brian, as they are dead.

After threat of speaking to James Sr. and Lady Elizabeth, Emma calls out to Valerie.

Brian stumbles into the garage to see an effecting hologram play out a version of events that depict precognitive recollections by holographic Brian as the dynamics of consentual intimacy seem just slightly off, so typical for time and place, as he and Valerie negotiate the moment in a car. She tells him to relax and enjoy it, while also questioning if they should, and he he using there is a first time for everything and then it's fine...his parents will be dead by the hands of the computer James Sr is working on.

"Let them die. I don't care. I just want to be you. Doing this..."

Actual Brian is like, 'nah, not what happened.'

Brian has never been the sharpest knife. Never you mind the drinking.

It seems Merlyn and Roma are narrating and commenting. Unsure.

He reaches the basement and finds a hologram of his parents bones, which are talking with him about it being lonely being dead and how he should have come home sooner. How they are embarrassed by their condition and he should have called so they would be more presentable. They don't want his sorries. To late. He shouldn't have been out with a girl.

As Brian looses his mind, Mastermind (the giant robot version) reacquaints himself with Brian. Introductions are, "I tried to kill you once before, but you wouldn't let me. Things are different now..."

Brian is like yup...you are just an extenuation of the Dad's computer...and I am responsible...cause I was making out with Valerie (not our Val...the American). I should have let you kill me.

That's when Brian understands the entire place is hologram. He is actually in a cavern, with remnants of tec he proceeds to work with till it serves his desired results. Not feeling crazy.

He returns up the stairs to what seems like a perfectly fine Manor. And pours himself a scotch. And then:

BRINGG BRINNG

A man enters a magic show of sorts. Where the audience tests the telepathy of the magician, facilitated by his sidekick. She invites another audience member to test the mind of her co-worker.

"...anyone else..."

"yes. what have I got in my pocket?"

the man asks.

"well. let me see you've got a..."

"oh god no..."

we have confirmation in the moment, as the last words pass the telepaths lips.

BLAAM

And his side kick in her seductive outfit is left feeling naked in her horror looking at the blood dripping on the stages background.

We don't need to see the body. The gun was enough evidence.

...THICKER THAN WATER

The following morning that phone ringing is picked up by Brian in full Captain Britain garb, minus the helmet. On the other end Betsy has a little fun with exposing her brothers secret identity.

Brian: "How are you, Betsy?"

Speaking of prophetic:

Betsy: "I'm alive, Brian, for the Moment."

Bets, has a real future in the ❌-Men life.

This is our introduction to Chris Claremont & Herb Trimpe's Elizabeth Braddock AKA Captain Britain AKA Psylocke AKA Lady Mandarin...er...never you mind that last one...we are pro-Kwannon here...and we are also not here to tell that story. On her 13th appearance she debuts in our telling of "to me my ❌-Men." Kitty remains our primary POV. However, when speaking about "our" ❌-Men, we mean Ororo, Logan, Piotr, Alison, Alex, Rogue, Longhsot, and now Betsy makes it eight.

While flexing a level up on consistency and fluency that will eventually become Alan Davis' signature, Betsy is not the Betsy we know from America. And I am not talking about, Kwannon here. I am speaking to the Betsy we will know in in the states as she is filtered through he hands of Davis, Romita Jr. Guice, Art Adams, and then is defined by Marc Silvestri.

Here we have an elongated face of a large head on to small a frame, with a bouffant hair style which puffiness I am guessing is Margaret Thatcher influenced. If it was the pouf, that would be fine, but this 80's British society mode is not a great look.

What is immediately recognizable, is Betsy's purple hair and her white skin. Yes, Betsy is a white English lady.

Betsy needs her brother, and he is on his way, after kvetching about where to eat.

Betsy is with some friends who are with their mutual Alison Double AKA Albedo, the sidekick from the magic show, seemed to passed out right after mentioning Kevin Mulhearn AKA Xanth. Vicki Reppion AKA Rubedo approaches Betsy, while she hangs up with Brian, to update her on things getting worse for Alison. We learn Kevin is dead. Assuming he was the magician. There are just five of them left. We are being introduced to S.T.R.I.K.E.'s (Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies) Psi Division. The UK's S.H.I.E.L.D. (Saviors of Humanity by Intervention in the Evolution of Life-form Deviants). The Psi Division are all telepaths and precogs. Thomas Lennox AKA Ghast and Avril Davis (no monicker, not that any will actual come up in the comic...we are barley learning first names here, thus far) the other two members of this division.

Brian is confused as to how Betsy knew he was alive and at home. It's been years. He arrives late at the fast food diner chain for shakes, and is is confused by Betsy's hair too. She explains her powers and how she is moonlighting as a division agent while still modeling. Yeah, she has got to get with the ❌-Men. This is fucking tragic.

The reintroduction page is another nice one. I think we have had five solid Alan Davis pages, since switching to Daredevils, shortly after Moore started writing this comic. The second last panel is a close up of the twins, going in for a hug, and Betsy's wide eyed look is foreshadowing and captures the look we are expecting from the States side. It's sweeting and haunting, knowing what's to come. The panel cropping and her arm position helps with the hair and chin.

Brian is such a...

*William Hanna & Joseph Barbera’s The Flintstones*

Bets explains, and gets to the part of S.T.R.I.K.E. being infiltrated by Vixen.

While we read Bets' catchup and Brian recalls fighting Vixen's henchs back in the day, we see "our" hench, who murdered Kevin in front of Alison and a live audience, approach Vicki as she reads a comic in a shop. He stabs her with a sharp object up his sleeve.

The psi link that Alison had with Kevin, messed her up when he was killed by the hench and now Bets' psi link with Vicki, as she is stabbed, strikes Bets down in the middle of her shake with her twin. Tragic.

Brian gets Bets out of there, as she is causing an unexpectable level of disturbance for this fast food joint. Man...in the US this is a Tuesday.

Back at the comic shop, the employees are waffling on living up to the example of their heroes, as the hench sets his eyes on Tom and Alison.

Lucky for them, Brian and Bets arrive. And with this, the hench calls out Brian for being a tool and then reveals his head and clothing are simply a mask and bulky form disguising, the Alan Davis' art we had been struggling with through during this chapter's reading. This not great rendering, introduces us to (for the second time technically), Larry Lieber (Stan's bro), Jim Lawrence, & Ron WIlson's Slaymaster, on his 7th (we actually saw him on his 6th, two issues ago). Not looking his best, or on model, we are still glad to see him...he is the worst.

KILLING GROUND

Brian and Slaymaster fight...Betsy and the other telepaths basically gossip through telepathy. Brian is first concerned with collateral damage potential in the comic shop...then he is actually stabbed with that sharp weapon Slaymaster had up his sleeve. It actually allows for him to penetrate Brian's barrier. Then Brian obsess over the fact that Slaymaster doesn't use his well developed left arm at all. At which point Slaymaster references Ninja's and a trick that leads to pain in the right shoulder when Brian was stabbed. But Brian fights through all this and bests him, as we are introduced to Chris Claremont & Tony DeZuniga's Inspector Dai Thomas in his 23rd appearance. He is our lovable craggy trench coated detective. A regular.

I don't love these pages, but there is a three quarters view head shot of Bets that is a welcome site.

"Elsewhere later..."

Chris Claremont & John Byrne's Arcade is making his 16th appearance, but we have skipped over his split time between Captain Britain and X-Men comics, AND Claremont & Byrne's Miss Locke, who is making her 12th appearence, and is also split her time between titles, while, for us making their debut in our telling of the story.

Vixen is on the phone to speak with Arcade. Miss Locke hands him the phone, and they discuss the failure of Slaymaster and the return of Brian.

Arcade: "Now it's personal."

And so we turn to Daredevils No. 5

"Do I have your attention, Ladies and Gentlemen?"

A presentation is being made to an audience of eight...nine? And the shadowy forms are not all immediately known by my eyes, but enough to excite me.

A file is spread out. Its contents are photos of Captain Britain, and of Bets and Tom. This title panel is well rendered.

TARGET:

CAPTAIN BRITAIN

RECOMMENDATION:

EXECUTIVE ACTION

A close up of a hairy face that makes me think of Jaime Hewlett & Alan Martin's Ripper's from their Tank Girl.

This is David Lloyd & Alan Moore's 1981's Wardog in his third appearance, our first, and he is laying out the plan of attack on their, as their scouting is completed, at Braddock Manor.

We see rendering of the plan in action, as he speaks to this future.

He mentions the differences of the manor are sophisticated, but holds confidence in their teams abilities.

An illusion of "bombed out ruins," a "wasteland" is presented to the world, by the computer in the basement. However, David Lloyd & Alan Moore's 1981's Cobweb in their second appearance, our first, is a high level telepath who can project the spaces reality into the minds of their team, but utilizing the view point of those in the Manor itself.

This allows David Lloyd & Alan Moore's 1981's Zeitgeist, in their second, our first appearance, as well, and making their proper debut the immediately recognizable in the previous page; Fascination, approach the front steps with Wardog and Cobweb.

This small cell will enter through the front door, as Zeitgeist phases through, as they only exist in an "abstract sense." Bonus, free of computers ability to sense their existence. In a delightful sequence, Zeitgeist will distract with hands coming through a wall behind Tom, pulling tom into the wall, spilling his milk and knocking him the fuck out. Zeitgeist phases to the cavern bellow and and just as Kitty would also, phases into the computer disrupting it to the point of it simple being materials without electrical impulses.

Allowing the other three members of this cell to enter through that front door, as well.

They must catch the telepaths inside off their guard. With Tom neutralized, Cobweb would confront another fellow telepath, Betsy as she is in bed, puts her robe on to investigate what happened to Tom in the kitchen, only Cobweb has her in the hallway, and becuase Cobweb is in contact with every version of theirself from past and future, the web of minds Cobweb can utlize to telepathically attack, is overwhelming to this one telepath. In a effecting horror of attack on Bets, we witness her felled to just over the bottom of the pages panel boarder. The design of the page and the illustrations within approach haunting.

Cobweb and Zeitgeist, quickly take care of sleeping Alison & Mrs. Emma, respectively, in single panels, asleep, int their beds. Leaving a sleeping Brian, to be awoken to...”Special Executive…”

"Of course what happens next is anybody's guess..."

BUT I'LL still TRY:

Brian, who like his twin, sleep snaked, like a normal person, leaps past the four intruders, grabbing his costume as he flys through the doorway.

This confuses Wardog, for a moment, but he directs Cobweb to track him telepathically. Only a moment to late, as Cobwebs head is struck from the shadows. Having underestimated and mischaracterized Brian, he reaches out with words and reason.

Apparently their aggressive entry into the space, is to ask for help.

Brian" "Well, why the hell didn't you say all that in the first place?"

An "error of judgment."

Brian: "...truth in the case of justice...an old friend. What you say her name was?"

Wardog: "Saturnyne."

WHUNCH!

Before Brian can kill Wardog, Fascination is elicited to step in.

Fascination, who actually matters as a character going forward, well compared to her team mates named thus far, uses her powers on Brian. Aeons, images, sound, stretch centuries and condense into an instant at once...Brian is out.

Wardog and Cobweb have a sweet moment, as Wardog check in with his groggy team mate, and refers to them as, "my sweet." And in the end Cobweb, still mumbling makes a statement of clarity:

"Wardog?"

"Drop dead."

The other five members of the so called "Special Executive, which were at the initial meeting, before operation launch, were in silhouette, but did not take part in this phase of the operation; recruiting Brian, eliminating Psi Division?!...we know, or I know who they are.

Ringtoss was the most obvious. Numbers is there, but doesn't stand out yet. We will be familiar with them two, like Fascination. Legion is unforgettable, and will appear again, like Sexton, and Havanner. Who will return, but in limited roles. For all of them this was their debut.

Ripped from the pages of Howard Chaykin, Roy Thomas, Marie Severin, and Jim Novak's Star Wars, or George Lucas's Star Wars, if they went to the theater forty-three days later, a scene plays out. A ship flys through "space that is not space...towards an earth that is not Earth" and...

THUNT!

...a figure...probably Brian...aboard flys through a room.

"ouch."

The reason why is given:

"to save a women that he would very much like to kill."

I like this page as constructed, but my favorite part is Steve Craddock's credits lettering.

Legion (The Alan's version, not the Chris and Bill version...though we love him even more), is an immediate delight in this splash page brawl of multiple cute bug eyed stout Legions, entangled with a Captain Britain (Brian), as Zeitgeist, Sextant, and Havanner observe; though Zeitgeist may actually be doing something with a box of sorts.

I am and I think have always been, someone less interested in the fight scenes than the average fan, or maybe even audience member. It kinda bores me. But at times, it can be fun. And this capture FUN!

JUDGEMENT DAY

Leaning into the Tank Girl humor vibes...

...Wardog leans into Cobweb, frustrated by his lack of warning for Brian waking. The telepath simply dismiss it, sighting it wouldn't change the current scene. These three panel moments are flavorful, but I can see how these two as the lead personalties are not long for this world. As Wardog complains of Cobweb finishing his sentences, a pile of Legion's have already stole their scene work.

Legions:

"Forget"

"Cobweb"

"She's"

"Screwy."

They say while punching, having tackled Brian, who is shredding apart the abstract Zeitgeist. A concept I really love.

Brian to Legions: "I hit one of you and ten of you get nosebleeds!! What are you people?"

Legions:

"I'm"

"Not"

"A"

"People"

"Stupid!"

As Brian threatens to brake their necks.

"Oh"

"No!"

"Not"

"That!"

Now we see that Fascination, Ringtoss, and Numbers are also simply observing their two...eight?...teammates get pummeled.

Brian finally gives up, as the efforts are fruitless.

"...forget it."

Zeitgeist makes the suggestion my wife and I often do during superhero stories:

"Shouldn't you be talking to him?"

-Alan Moore

Wardog: "...I can image that this must all seem terribly distressing...:

Brian: "**DISTRESSING**? ARE YOU SERIOUS? You scramble my brains, you kidnap me..."

-Alan Moore

Speaking to themes of "to me my ❌-Men," and why Chuck is THE VILLAIN, as telepathic manipulator and collector of children...

But he goes on:

"You ask me to be a defence witness for a woman who once left me to die..."

I think these likely work thematically too.

Wardog clarifies...the Special Executives are a Mercenary group. Read: we are morally flexible and kinda annoyed your morality and emotions are inconveniencing our work day.

Saturnyne is being accused of destroying the alternate Earth she and Brian met on.

Alan Davis is now aping Jean Giraud AKA Mœbius (Blueberry c. 1963, Metal Hurlant c. 1974, Heavy Metal c. 1977, The Silver Surfer c. 1988), as they have arrived at yet another Earth (Earth-522, debut).

Earth-522 and Earth-523 (next door)'s counterparts to Brain; Captain England and Captain Albion, are to escort Captain Britain to Saturnyne.

When an interlude where The Twisted World, perhaps Earth-238, the subject of these events, is referred to as an Earth, "where reality is broken down into a sludge of bubbling nightmare." So naturally The Fury walks about. Never to give up.

Back on Earth-522, Brian is left with a held Saturnyne and they go through the motions, but the damage done by Saturnyne, the kidnapping, murder, and abandonment, etc...it can't keep Brian from two of his three vices; a sense of honor, and lust. She plays the dame in distress, after trying her usual vibe, and while the tears aren't scotch, its enough for him to come around and her to seem sympathetic to him in the end...though she is far from convincing in the beginning.

"The Supreme Omniversal Tribune is now in session."

In attendance are folks like, Danger Mouse and Penfold, E.T., Marvelman (not dead!?!), and of course Batman.

Presiding over the proceedings is Lord Mandragon, who has supplanted Saturnyne here and on the imperial throne. Perhaps this cast doubt on his objectivity.

Cue Hooper's Panel Event at SDCC, where he unpacks this scene for us:

"Gentlemen, Ladies and Honoured Bi-Morphs..."

Publishing date June, 1983.

Mandragon has moved within a sentance to punishment, and through to prioritizing addressing The Twisted Worlds potential for warping and eliminating adjacent Earths until all are gone.

That old chestnut.

It's a "wait just one second here...he's not wrong" speech.

Mandragon sites emergency powers; Saturnyne's defense counsel Lord Chancellor (who is a sick design, that is wasted on a nearly irrelevant character) objects for reason of destruction of evidence; and Brian is silenced by Mandragon, as he points out, "Destroy an entire universe (Earth-238)? Are you people insane?"; Mandragon sites clause723-801-(d), and states objection over-ruled, and with a mechanism like this...

He becomes worse than Jean's Pheonix...when it comes to genocide. Earth-238 is a the shadow of a white light. Floating in what is now the vast darkness of space is, The Fury who will never give up.

It is very clear that Marvel is facilitating space for The Alan's to work through their twenties and now in Moor's case into 30, like Stan Lee and the Marvel bullpen were through the '56...and for a small few...on to the 60's. For the potential is obvious, these comics are not refined, but their creators will help define refinement in 20th Century comics.

Linda tosses and turns in her sleep, wrestling with thoughts of The Talon, who died, despite invisibility. She speaks with Rick. Linda knows all is lost.

ROUGH JUSTICE

We are treated to last moments for Earth-238's mightiest UK heroes. Their own shellhead tinman, Android Andy. Tom Rosetta, burned. Marvelman, shot. Arachnid, Bash Street Bunty, Captain Roy Rick, Colonel Tusker, Gaath, Iron Talon, Kid Miracleman, Puppetman, all dead by The Fury. Even Rick, right in front of Linda.

She wakes from her nightmares by 📺

...or rather Neil and Bob. Neil being your average tentacle alien commentator and Bob being your average pub frequenting white human male commentator. Your local blow hards. Who are broadcasting live from the Omniversal Tribunal.

Saturnyne is asked to tell her side of the story. Which we basically know. After which Mandragon points out Brian iand Saturnyne are obviously lusting after eachother, and there for Brian's testamony would be biased by the need to 'get a room.' So, was Brian objects the two Captains of the Captain Britain Corps who chaperoned him, now restrain him. He brakes free of course, allowing Wardog and Cobeweb to have banter about who's idea was it to take this gig, and now we have giant robot guards, who step on Neil, as Fascination, Legion and Cobweb attempt to help Brian. Oh dear...Bob also got stepped on.

Linda gets up to read the paper and have her coffee...tea?! Either way take a drink.

***ARRIVALS***

"It arrived an hour ago. Space burst like a blister and it tumbled out of nowwhere."

-Alan Moore c. 1983

Mrs. McGeary's life as we know it is, harkens the life and times of Glow Worm and Bulk. Their socioeconomic status and their life style have much in common in 80's comics depicting Earth-616. For her the end was thin harpoon like shape through the skull. Because the The Fury (again, not Nick), is relentless and somehow has managed to make it from what was Earth-238, to Earth-616...and hour ago. Mrs. McGeary's bag is the first time I am aware of that an Alan Moore comic uses this symbolism:

This 1986, Dave Gibbons & Alan Moore page is perhaps a pantheon comics page when it comes to industry and cultural impact. For some of us still, it is an artistic achievement of the highest order.

"In a near by dimension..."

We have shots of Legion fighting...so we have joy.

Brian is fighting his fellow Captains still, and is of course talking as he does...when he has a splendid moment after recapping the absurdity of his current state. A pause in the action:

Brian: "Do you ever get halfway through a sentence and find yourself unable to believe that you're actually saying it?"

Captain England: "No"

England, clearly takes this moment to smack Brian in the face, but just as clearly, Alan Moore is already sharing interest in deconstructing and analyzing superhero comics. This time for a chuckle.

Using Cobwebs precog abilities, there is an ongoing joke playing out amongst his fellow mercenaries, as they work to extract themselves, Saturnyne and Brian from this situation...oh and their payment. It's fine for light entertainment.

Alan Davis is not ready for a double page splash page, but we get one anyway. He is developing.

I am convinced this is Linda McQuillan still, and she is still on her own...but has left the apartment. Now...OH...they mention not only is she leaving before the arrival of the morning paper...but also the MILKMAN!

I had been self-publishing mini comics/zines for over a decade...been a in a handful of comics anthologies, but my first self-published floppy..which was a huge undertaking and resulted in an MFA in Sequential Art, debuted at SPX, in 2004. It was centered around a Milkman. I was obsessed with the subject for a few years.

*Ben Cohen’s Ordinary Betty & Ted the Milkman*

Also not cool! Mandragon. Who has been informed by a battle warn hench that Brian and his new friends have escaped. Mandragon, refers to how he has this crystal computer at his fingers which can destroy any universe he wants. Seems like an over reaction and kinda pathetic.

I understand and enjoy the playground that The Alans are playing in...but I am not exactly looking to play with them in this moment. Not my thing.

Hurrah...Bets is back!

She and Tom are telepathically arguing about the events of last night and what their next steps aught to be...when the doorbell rings and in comics Brian with Saturnyne (the woman he wants to kill) and his kidnappers.

I really wish Alan Davis of 1983, could pencil like Alan Davis of 1988. Of course I am probably saying something similar of the other Alan here.

As this…

...continues in Braddock Manor, Linda arrives at the door, with warning of genocide.

We KNOW LINDA!

*she IS Captain UK.

Before we walk through this next issue, taking a moment to talk about the art in it. As I have been mentioning, it is clear, Alan Davis is working with the medium and his own reality to get somewhere that works. Process, a lesson I took from my high school acting classes, is essential to artistic development. While it never ends, being aware of it and working with it consciously contributes to the development of the artist and the art. It is how we find our voice and how we refine this voice.

Here Davis has a splash page that works as constructed, but not as it is rendered. All the pieces fit well, but when you look closely at them individually, you see he has not refined them to what we will expect from him a half decade later.

I am appreciating this journey, because of where I am in my own journey. Our timing and outcomes are worlds apart, but his influence on me has been there for so long, it is a gift to be able to reflect on his struggles on the page. Of course, he did the work, was afforded time and space, and frankly has the focus to work through this at a rate that is taking him half a decade, not half a lifetime.

While you may find something left of Alan Davis in how I work today, the chances are you would not think of him as an influence on what I do. This would be a mistake. I am not here to ape Alan Davis. He simply developed into a cartoonist who's comics were so admired by me, that I couldn't help but fall under their spell creatively. I have worked to expand the spectrum of influences, and have been purposeful in letting the conscious influences they have on me go. However, what's done is done on the unconscious front. Alan Davis is there in my work. It is, what it is.

What I am seeing in this issue, is likely a coincidence of convergence of influences on Alan Davis in England at the time similar or the same influences with effecting a contemporary of his in Canada. There are these close up, cropped panels of Linda's face, that scream Todd McFarlane to me.

We know Todd sites Alan Moore as an influence. We know, he produced roughly 700 submission packages before Ann Nocenti, passed one on to Archie Goodwin and Jo Duffy, who passed them on to Steve Englehart, who contacted Todd and hired Todd to do back up pages for Marvel's Coyote in 1984. Did Todd see this The Dardevils No. 9 in 1983...or after? Or it simply two cartoonists working in the same time, with the same influences? The American influence is known. The British is possible.

We are treated to the mercenaries taking in the vibes of black and white TV, as Earth-616's James Jaspers is a talking head spewing anti-sup propaganda.

Legion plays himself in chess.

Linda is incredibly upset.

WAITING FOR THE END OF THE WORLD

Linda has walked out, as Brian goes after her, Opal Luna Saturnyne, Fascination, Numbers, Legion, Wardog, Cobweb, Lady Burning Fish, Oxo, Zeitgeist, RIngtoss, Havanner, Sextant, Tom, and Bets are all camped around the TV, in the splash page mentioned previously. All with paranormal reason for concern here.

In the page that speaks McFarlane to me (because Davis, normally doesn't work this big with his figures and faces), Linda sheds tears, as Brian, who is honestly always terrible at this, attempts to assure her. After all this is likely Earth-616's James Jaspers...not Earth-238's...are any of us buying this line of thinking?!...outside of Brian?

Linda is like, that is literally the same speech he gave on Earth-238...which eventually lead to there not being an Earth-238, after all her colleges and friends were eradicated systematically.

Linda: "word for word."

The next page screams "to me my ❌-Men," and provides some unexpectedly early answers to those wondering...why are we even here "BEN?!"

At a cocktail party, James Jaspers is thanking in person, our old pal Shaw from the Hellfire Club, for funding his efforts, as Shaw introduces Henry Gyrich to Jaspers. Honestly, I had no idea, and this seems perfect.

Jaspers is handed a glass of wine on the same page and proceeds to warp it from white into red, as he prefers. This is absolutely the same Jaspers...it will take some work to make me think otherwise.

On the following page, we shift to "Otherworld", where Roma and Merlyn observe through magic, the cocktail party, and Jasper specifically. As they lounge in a magic hot tub and play magic chess.

So as Legion plays against themselves on Earth-616, in Otherworld, Roma and Merlyn play...only they play with peices that include Legion...and every other relevant character here. They seem to be controlling the narrative, which has massive impact on events and our perceptions of these events.

This is how we are introduced to Vixen, who receives a call from, NOT ARCADE, but someone who does not reveal themselves to her, but learn with in this (first use, by Alan Moore?) nine panel gridded page, it is of course Jasper. Who gives her a heads up of the plan to have her S.T.R.I.K.E. eliminate all supers.

Legion has reached another stalemate against themselves, which is bothering Cobweb. Zeitgeist and Wardog are discussing why they are even still there...the reason is payment from Saturnyne who sits there without a care in the world. Cobweb speaks of a premonition of dread.

Tom wants Bets to leave with him. She has her own vision, which includes a chess piece from Merlyn and Roma's game overseeing horrific scenes, including something happening to a Spider-Man, Brian, etc...Bets herself is there.

Linda: "Death CAMPS..."

She and Brian are still at an impasse...and Linda leaves into the snowy night.

Merlyn speaks to all the pieces being in place...but then...notices something amiss...out of the corner of his eye...and in this moment electronic sites are placed on Linda and The Fury has confronted her...

Alan Davis continues to experiment with format in the subsequent issue, as the 11 x 17 bristol board is placed horizontally. A technique that I first consciously recognized in the hands of Rob Liefeld, in early X-Force (I believe). A comics that is irrelevant to "to me my ❌-men,” other than the context of how they are part of the story of influencing the entire comics industry going forward. Others of course had used this before...I just wasn't struck in the moment like I was Liefeld's utilization of it.

I have used it myself since.

"January 10, 1983"

Saturnyne is flirting and messing with Brian.

"AND LINDA MCQUILLAN IS SCREAMING."

I really like how this forces Davis to have panels that restrain what can fit, and forces cropping of form, which helps edit out some of his more novice or deadline induced drawing issues. There is a sequence of depicting Cobweb, that make Cobweb look compelling for the first time, as a drawing. In perhaps her last moment...as she seems to be dying from out of no where...as you do.

Cobweb: "I didn't see...I didn't see it coming."

"AND LINDA MCQUILLAN IS SCREAMING."

Merlyn admits to Roma, he is missing something. She assures him, it happens...and then notices...the chess board...The Fury in play.

Roma: "You make that?"

"AND LINDA MCQUILLAN IS SCREAMING."

Back in vertical 11 x 17, we are playing with diagonal panels.

Linda has been dreaming of this moment for a decade...she underestimated it.

Merlyn is caught off guard as The Fury is in play on the board and is making a move on Captain UK.

The board is on fire in this spot.

Brian flys from out of nowhere and attacks The Fury.

Bets has a horrific moment in her mind.

Lady Burning Fish waxes poetically a description of the moment.

Zeitgeist remains focused on payment.

The inside crowed is now outside, joining in the fight. Maybe not Bets. Legion is our champion!

Oh no...

Legion: "Legion's dead..."

Back to horizontal page.

Cobweb is cryptically speaking to what she didn't see coming. We seem to be seeing a warping by Jaspers of reality and the future. We learn Legion and Cobweb have been lovers. We learn that versions of Legion are being eliminated. We may have spoken to soon on Cobweb's lifeline.

We know that the future... "...it is cancelled."

Brian falls through space and time...into the same moment?!

BUT THEY NEVER REALLY DIE

Treated to another splash page pressing us in the right direction.

Tom comforts Bets.

The Munsters plays on the tv.

Zeitgeist and Havanner are over a Cobweb who is foaming at the mouth, blind, and mumbling the events in reverse going back to Ms. McGeary...including the cat. Havanner,"I-I've never seen her like this before. She said they needed help..."

Zeitgeist:

"No no me. Not this time."

"It's a principle. I told wardog...I don't risk my life for fun. I'm a professional."

"No. There's no money involved. I can't help."

(as the future is canceled outside)

"Don't you understand?"

"I just can't."

"That's all."

A heartbreaking sequence of panels.

Outside, Oxo is killed.

it's fine. He looks like an ant.

Fascination stops smiling. Alan Moore makes a point of this.

She takes her shot on The Fury.

Brian's turn.

Zeitgeist in his feels appears from bellow...and he is invisible to The Fury...as he is abstract. He calls for all to attack at once.

It escapes through burial by rocks.

Brian is such a tool, Saturnyne is the one who shows empathy for Linda, who is stuck in a state.

Zeitgeist is kinda done with Wardog. Good.

One of Legion's future selves is dead.

Instead of working together, as Brian had hopped, the mercenaries leave. Tom and Bets (who clearly have some chemistry), Saturnyne and Brian (who clearly have some chemistry) must make a choice, stay home, where the Fury will resurface...or perhaps go face Jaspers in London...without the help of kidnappers.

In 1966 Marvel began to break into the top tier of comics sales, with Amazing Spider-Man. Prior to this it had been rough, since at least the Atlas implosion and DC's rescue after the Senate hearings in the mid to late 50's. The idea that Kirby, Ditko, and Lee had taken over the market in 1962, is not reality. They were controlled by DC's distributer, and they were small in comparison to the EC, Archie, Dell and Golden Key. In 1969, Spidy broke into the top 10. FF was No. 12.

Spidy, alone in the top 10, followed by FF was how it was till 1973, when FF offically joined the top 10. Thor lingered will behind, followed by the Hulk. In 1974, Amazing Spider-Man became the top selling comic book, and Mad (EC) dwarfed the comics market as the top selling comics magazine. But for a floppy, Spidy was as good as it gets. FF held on, and Thor was peaking into the top 10. Hulk not far behind. Superman took back No. 2, Spidy was No. 3 (again Mad No. 1). FF, Thor and Hulk in the top ten in 1975, when Claremont takes over X-Men. Spidy was back on top(ish), FF and the Hulk placing. Avengers get as close as they have ever been, with Thor at No. 12. By 1976, Spidy was holding off Superman, and FF, Hulk, Avengers, and Thor were all placing. 1977 and 1978, the same.

In 1979, Marvel's Star War took over, Spidy was next. And then the Hulk, followed by FF. Marvel had the top four comic books. Avengers and for the first time the X-Men placed in the top ten ahead of Batman, who was a regular and had been dominate in the 60's in 1966, ushuring the Era of Superhero's domination over Dell, Archie, etc... In 1980, Spidy overtook Star Wars, FF was next, then the Hulk, edging out Avengers for the top five. Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian made the top 10, as did the X-Men. Sorry, Iron Man…so close to being relevant. Rom was No. 12, and Thor 13. No DC comics were in the top 10 and Marvel held more than half the market spots in the top 50 comics titles. Superman was isolated at No. 14, amongst Marvel titles.

In 1981 the X-Men edged out Spidy for the spot under Mad. Making Star Wars No. 4. Avengers finally reached top five comic books, No. 6 over all. Hulk, FF, and X-Men character Dazzler followed. Superman slipped to No. 18, in between Moon Knight and Rom. X-Men were doing a bit more than edging out Spidy, but they weren’t running away with it yet, in 1982. She-Hulk had joined the Avengers into No. 5 over all. As No. 3 was FF, because of X-Men artist John Byrne taking over the title. Star Wars, Conan, Iron Man placed for the first time ever, Hulk, and Daredevil also placed for the first time in the top 10, as Miller was cooking. 1983’s list of Mad, X-Men, Daredevil, FF, Spidy, Avengers, Conan, Hulk, Iron Man, Star Wars, makes a lot of sense from a subjective perspective, and is backed up by numbers. Especially the part of X-Men nearly outselling DD by 100K.

1984 was where the X-Men began to pull away. FF had She-Hulk, but she was no match for Mutants. Spidy was still the logo, but that was only good enough for third. Avengers were doing their historic best at four. DD was still quality at five. As with Star Wars at the end of the 70’s and into the 80’s, 1985 had GI Joe, which debuted well behind the X-Men (who were nearing 500K…unheard of since Archie entered the 1970), in between Spidy and FF. Spidy had to titles now that were leveraging against the Avengers. DD had slipped out of the top ten to No. 11. DC had Teen Titans at 10…the first time in a while they were relevant. In 1986, Transformers joined the party behind X-Men and GI Joe. Spidy and FF next, with West Coast Avengers representing just ahead of Alpha Flight, an X-title. Web of Spider-Men and then The Avengers completed the top 10.

Mazzuccelli & Miller’s Daredevil; commonly known as Born Again in 1985-1986, spilled into their Batman run; commonly known as Year One, causing both to be top fifteen comics through 1987. However, in 1987, it was Transformers who would edge out the X-Men, who had been the top comic book for since 1981. GI Joe and Transformers were changing the landscape, nearly like Star Wars had. Still, the X-titles had the edge over all, as they held the next two spots with New Mutants and X-Factor reaching top five. Three of the top five comics in North America were X-Titles. Spidy was the next two, followed by Avengers, FF, and a third Spidy. The next five were West Coast, X-title Alpha Flight, that Batman, Thor and that Daredevil. 1988 saw X-Men, X-Factor, and then two Spidy comics, then New Mutants, then a Spidy, followed by a new Silver Surfer series (just before the Jean Giraud limited series), Avengers and Iron Man. Action Comics came in at 21, edging out Marvel’s Groo the Wonderer.

While Batman demolished film records in 1989, DC comics was not relevant leading up to it, when looking at sales figures. The only comics brake 100K were, Mad (which dipped bellow a million copies, the year after the X-Men became their No. 2 …and hovered above 700K, as X-Men hovered bellow 500K for a while), X-Men (above 400K again), Excalibur (X-title), Wolverine, X-Factor (making these titles all at 300K), Amazing Spidy, New Mutants (X-title), Spectacular Spidy, Avengers (last above 200K), Iron Man (top 10), Web of Spidy, DD (nearly 200K), Punisher, Thor, West Coast, Classic X-Men, FF, Cap America, Silver Surfer, Marvel Presents, Hulk, GI Joe, Savage Conan, Avengers Spotlight, and Alf. No DC comics make this list. In fact more Conan, another X-title Alpha Flight, The ‘Nam, are all Marvel titles. Nine Archie titles are ahead of DC. In the mix there is Power Pack…an honorary X-Title. Heathcliff a Marvel comic, beats on Bats, Sups and Diana.

Marvel dominates on the heals of the X-Men, which essentially becomes unstoppable as soon as things get really going in “to me my ❌-Men.” And if you keep going, it becomes clear that until 2008, it really is the events that are happening on X-titles and Spidy titles that shape the future of comics as an industry.

I contextualize all this to point out, from Alan Davis’ version of Captain Britain was appearing in the comics magazine Marvel Super Heroes from 1981-1982, which feature a number of Avengers stories and covers that more often featured them, then Brian…though Brian was front and center to start on the cover…despite being a back up story. Then readers had to jump to a new title, the comics magazine The Daredevils (Moore’s third issue), which ran nearly through 1983, and features along with Captain Britain Daredevil, as Miller’s Daredevil becomes the second most popular comic book in North America. At which point, going into 1984, Captain Britain with The Alans moves again to comics magazine Mighty World of Marvels, which features Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s Wolverine on the cover, two years after the image appears on the cover of their limited series. It is clear the connective tissues between these creators, these characters, and their control of the market. It is clear that the X-Men will dominate because of these contexts. We have reached Mighty World of Marvels.

Mighty World of Marvel Vol. 2 No. 7 featuring The Daredevils with a publishing date of the final month in 1983, shares the graphic design aesthetics of tabloid journalism. Which is to say, it is anti-aesthetics. Somehow here, it manages to diminish an Alan Davis Captain Britain and Frank Miller's Logan from the cover of Wolverine Vol. 1 No. 3. The most soulful rendering of Logan in history is reduced to the trash, folks in the 20th Century propagandized it was.

That is until you open the cover.

In college I did a smoking page. I have never seen this page, but they are remarkably similar in tone and use of longshot panels. The pace is dark, calm and inviting. Illumination occurs with the lighting and passing of a sig (not using the brits term...sorry...not sorry). As a cartoonist, this page captures an aspect of my approach, and my admiration. Which works perfectly, 'Cause, as a fan, this page introduces a comics crush of mine, an all time favorite comics character, a mutant's mutant, turned problematic paradox worth getting into.

Meggan!

We see fur, bat or dragon wings, and her sig sharing friend; Sue Persons.

Our Meggan and Sue are discussing, "him." Not exactly a great start to my neighbor to the South, Alison Bechdel's test.

Surprised I didn't see here yesterday. Kochalka was there...anyhoo...back across the pond brain.

Sue and Meggan are interrupted (maybe) for a moment, as we turn to the next page.

Sue: "Someone said they saw him in a foodline."

THE CANDLELIGHT DIALOGUES

Davis is nearly there in terms of being on model for Alan Davis. I am probaly quibbling at this point. Eventually, he gets so on model, it looses its organic feels. So I need to start enjoying this.

He is inking himself, which was a theory I had...but now I am going all in on, development process.

We are introduced to new hench "persons," and I don't exaclty know how I feel here. They are very metal...which almost works with the fact that they are harassing a punk with a pink hawk, as they seem to be managing the "foodline." Brian is absolutely there, by the way. He sticks out, as a tall blonde square in a trench coat. Anyhoo, these "Beetles" have studded gauntlets that would make Rob Halford's approval, but perhaps do to the time and setting, I am not into the Mordor's army horned headgear. It being London...maybe this is being in the shadow of Big Ben, maybe it is just fine.

The pink haired punk is being profiled by these fascist metalhead Beetles, (which is a travisty, as they came out of the same scene)...and they are asking for papers and talking about how he looks off...they are looking for sups. Brian is right there. The guys punk girlfriend actually leans into Brian for help. In doing so, she reveals part of his costume...oh dear.

Sue narrating: "She blew the whistle on him."

Meggan narrating: "She didn't."

She did.

A fight, turns into a mountain of Beetles and Brian on top, victorious.

Meggan mentions there is a story he came down from the North with an army of telepaths and superheroes. Brian is from the East of London on the coast...but maybe. An army...hah.

Someone else said he was dead.

Another said he was tortured and informed on his friends. Meggan calls that girl fat...which is not working for me AT ALL...but I do like this bit:

"I Marked her. Marked her face."

The youthful glee she has is spot on for this part of her life.

Meggan to Sue: "How did they get you then?"

A ESP test at school. Sue got pulled in for that.

Sue narrating: "you?"

Meggan narrating: "roadblock..."

Meggan's "people" are Romanichal and they are travelers. They had kept her hidden all her 17 years...until that day.

They got her Dad too. William Puceanu, a mutant who makes, "crawly dolls."

This conversation, between Sue and Meggan is from within an internment camp, guarded by Beetles, illuminated by the light of a of a billboard, with Jasper's head on it, and the words:

IN YOUR HEARTS YOU KNOW HE'S RIGHT!

Prologue:

THE TWISTED WORLD

(reprise)

The Vixen has sent some of the Beetles (not the Liverpool sort) to Braddock Manor's "rubble." They are chatting about Jasper being referred to as "Mad Jim," in political circles. They wall down into the cavern and far to casually approach The Fury. Who has been recuperating. To late...they dead and the Fury is on the move.

Bets and Opal Luna Saturnyne return from resourcing in the city. Brian is helping Alison, who is in a bad way again.

Bets is overwhelmed by the psychic strife of Londoners. Tom is worried.

Saturnyne and Brian are reflecting on how this is the same as Earth-238. Only the art and the cast is way better.

Linda is still staring off into fear.

Jasper wins the election in a landslide.

We get more time with Vixen, and we get to know the dynamics with Angel. Who is her bodyguard, but behaves like her cuck. She comforts him, in his state of fear, as she boasts of credit for what Jaspers has been credited with creating.

We don't get nearly enough interesting dynamics with Arches...this is proto:

*Jackson Publick & Doc Hammer’s The Venture Bros.*

The dominatrix stud guard is named Jennifer. The Vixen is concerned Jasper is attracting to much international attention; Soviets, Avengers, SHIELD.

They brake into Jaspers, and there he is expecting them. He also has an ever changing ridiculous appearance like he did back on Earth-238...something they note.

The cartooning in this issue is split between fantastic and aesthetically displeasing. Vixen and especially Angel and Jennifer are antidote to Jasper.

Angel, has a multi image moment of action with little bodies coming out of his body...Jennifer is suffering from odd expansion...this is incredibly effecting and solid cartooning. Jasper is not helping, but he has a nice pink fox.

Brian gets ready to go out and superhero.

The cover of this issue has another Alan Davis Brian and Rick Leonardi's Cloak and Dagger illustration from their first issue of their Four-Issue Limited Series. This counted for diversification.

Roma advises her father:

"We must abandon the game. You (Merlyn) are loosing too heavily. And with so much at stake. Your erratic...you have moved your white chevalier into the Black Circle, where he must face the Reality-Butcher alone...and in doing do, you have left your remaining pieces open to attack. You're losing, father. Stop the game."

The board game has Brian, isolated with Jasper, Vixen and other Roma pieces surrounding him. While Bets, Tom, Alison, Linda, Saturnyne, seem to have Beetles all around them.

Merlyn is overly reactive and unwilling to fold.

Roma places another Beetle into position.

AMONG THOSE DARK SATANIC MILLS

An overlay of a scene that intesestcs Kristallnacht and The Green Dragon Inn, spills into Bets' hair...which if you recall, has enough room to take on such a scene. By the time the page reaches her face, it is coming together nicely.

Brian having just left.

Bets:

"Tom?"

"I'm not sure, but I think there's..."

"...someone coming..."

Tom is taking his shot at being th one to stand up. He telepathically requests, Bets take Alison. When that doesn't work...he uses his big boy voice:

"I said get OUT OF HERE! ALL of you!"

💭 "I'll keep them busy."

Oh...he has telekinesis. He can throw small objects.

Linda and Saturnyne are out.

Bets and Alison, too...only they have been been tied up with the Beetles baterangs.

Bellow, Tom is shot up. And being a telepath, Bets knows. Her knight in shining armor is dead.

Saturnyne has had enough:

"For God's sake HELP them! YOUR'RE a super-woman!"

Linda: "No! Leave me ALONE!"

Runs off into London mist.

Alison looks comatose.

Bets is grabbing dirt or a rock, but then two panels later is as close to doing something as Linda is in the same panel. As her hand is farther from it then when she was two panels earlier.

Bets, Alison, and Tom are off the board. Merlyn has three pieces left; Brian, Saturnyne, and Linda?!

Merlyn narration (Brian in action):

"Captain Britain..."

"I created you, long years ago now (1976)..."

"I shaped the clay that was Brian Braddock and I sculpted a champion..."

"A champion against the advent of that DIRE AND TERRIBLE day..."

"today."

I don't go in for this sort of storytelling, but this is Alan Moore flexing a bit, and I will allow it.

...Alan is taking advantage of my generosity.

and so he does

As Moore blathers on about how we got here...and how so so hard it was for poor poor Brian...Brian enters into Jaspers spot to find the pink fox, and up stairs the warped Jennifer and Angel, frozen or dead in these forms. The cartoonists horror scene by Davis, still affecting.

Moore finally ends with a line that facilitates the beginning of the next page:

"and no man shall aid you!"

Now, this is juxtaposed with a panel and page of Opal Luna Saturnyne having caught up with Captain UK as Linda McQuillan, two 'not men.' It also is being read by an American here, who reads into it our inherited cultural fantasies of the lone cowboy and the narcissistic narrative of the story being about us...as this is the way for the American, who is taught to center the self by our collective family histories, save most African American and Indigenous American peoples...whose family history quest have important distinctions from the rest...well...then there is the colonizers...who certainly have a our distinctions...which reflect on Brian's depiction here, much like the note of "no man."

That all noted...I am intrigued as to how The Alans play this page out.

Saturnyne yells and punches with her best impression of a celebrity roaster and prize fighter. Laying Tom's death at her feet, along with all of Earth-238.

Linda snaps out of it and hits back.

Saturnyne pulls herself up and says with a smirk:

"That's much better. Now get up. And let's get moving."

As Brian opens a final door and is greeted by a solar system with Mad Jim Jaspers, glowing at the center of it.

Alan Davis nails this moment.

Opal Luna Saturnyne presses, coaches , and shrinks Linda McQuillan through her feels, as the garments come off, the pants being the major sticking point, until all that is left is her suit. Finally she must place the helmet on her head. She is Captain UK. She has done it now.

With Linda in costume, having Betsy and Meggan being part of the story, Alan Davis is cooking. This during the Alan Moore experience. I had no idea, but I had my suspicions.

I don't recall any mention of this in the 1983-1984 winter telling of Earth-616, but a glowing, translucent Jasper sky with at least London warping towards his whims, seems something that would have been noticed. But perhaps, memories are taken up with it.

ANARCHY IN THE UK

Unfortunately for us, this provides The Alans a context to work within their refined process and wax nostalgic about old material, while playing experimental with narrative transitions through cartooning and super science magic. And his moniker being on the title, they of course use the dullest tool at their disposal, Brian.

Brian and Jasper joust with words that are not nearly as clever as they would be, because the visuals are also not as nearly as clever as they would be, the subjects being what they are. We are treated to illusions, that have escape hatches of other illusions, as we somewhat cleverly feel betrayed and then released from betrayals. These techniques of cartooning, will be welcoming to me, but not when you use it to being the subject of Jackdaw up.

We are treated to moments with Avant Guard, Coco, Queen of Hearts, Jack of Hearts, Tweedledope & Executioner , and finally we land in a more stable illusion. Brian's deaging becoming a clever visual gag, as now he is in the hospital as a kid.

Lady Elizabeth AKA Mom has him, the nurse, one of the few Black women we have seen for, what seems like, ever, feels like the grounding element here. Which says far to much about the role we cast for Black women in America, then it does for this moment in this comic.

Brian is not a kid. He is simply younger and skinny. The Nurse is off to fetch a sceond Mrs. Braddock...and you have to up on the subtle desticntion of language and title...Mrs. can't be his Mom, she is Lady...and it can't be his sister, she is Ms....no this is Brian's wife Courtney Ross.

And this is where the Opal Luna and the Cortney Ross begins to get a bit confusing. For a while we can speak of Opal Luna Saturnyne and Courtney Ross in separate breaths, but eventually you can see them being pulled together into Sat-Yr-Nin of Earth-794...So Opal Luna and Courtney Ross it is going forward.

Jaime Delano & Alan Davis Sat-Yr-Nin, who is not being brought up, and won't be till 1985 in this chapter and won't again show in our story till 1988. Chris Claremont and Herbert Trimpe's Courtney, who is only being mentioned in an illusion from a Jasper warp here...on this page...has been in 18 issue before we begin telling this part of the story here...and won't properly shoe...maybe till 1988 too. We have to turn the page to confirm.

Before we even get there, this illusion of Brian transitions back into the Brian who is confronting a warped world. Did this moment give Brian insight...he had he seemed confused and his memories were not seeming right to those in the hospital room...but this probably because he was this Brian...our Brian...in 1983 or 1984. I don't actually know, when this issue hit the stands.

Brian is being toyed with. For every Japser he nocks down, or even kills, another, far more annoying pops up. And then unmistakably he has been found by The Fury.

I don't know who to credit with the coloring, specifically this page, but the choices are a solid example of the role they play in storytelling and aesthetics. This monotone and gradient of orangish pink is effecting and pulls us into Brian's experience in the moment, as much as any other element on the page. Brian is fucked and he knows it.

FOOLSMATE

The next page is a bit of betrayal for this set up. The creative team is phoning it in after an artful set up. The Fury and Brian battle. Jasper observes.

So in this moment of dull comics, everyone, including Jim Jaspers knows the moment needs an uplift. And so he "creates," what has already been seen in part...The Crazy Gang.

Oh he is simply taking credit for the creation of everything.

And as now in place of The Queen of Hearts is the Red Queen, Coco of Earth-238 has been replaced by Jester, Jack of Hearts is now Knave, Tweedledope and Executioner are now simply the Earth-616 versions of themselves, name included.

And they simply observe, as Jasper is the one who takes action, approaching the Fury, who simply warps away the fear, and takes Fury's best shot, then regenerates into another Jasper, and warps the Fury as he wishes.

Roma is incredibly annoyed by her father and the game. The stakes being as high as they are, he begins to walk away as she leans into him with her concerns of the cavalier and whimsical approach being taken. She accuses him of loosing, and in doing so, "we've lost."

As she demands he answer, he calls to the ground, his eyes rolled to the back of his head. His body contorted.

Roma looks horrified.

"merlin?"

They stuck the landing, creatively.

"Amidst the fused and shifting ruins of the world, the monsters battle."

"This is how it ends:"

-Alan Moore c. 1984

Sure. Thankfully. Only this is not that sort of story.

Brain is grounded in tatters. The Jasper warps, but the Fury will not die. The onlookers are a Crazy Gang and Opal Luna. Linda is nestled in her chest, unable to look.

Spring(ish), 1984, London, Earth-616.

ENDGAME*

*was this the source of that title?

We went from nice enough set up page, to a splash page that reminds me of sketchbook work, I can't bring myself to show anyone...not for execution...or subject...it just went far enough to simply not work.

That didn't work Alan Davis...

…to a a series of varying width elongated horizontal panels that zoom out from what isn't working, and with distance comes refined creativity.

The entanglement of Jasper and Fury goes from a space reminiscent of Gibbons proto-Watchmen moon scenes work into a Ditko Strange Astral Plane abstract art.

That absolutely works Alan Davis.

And then we are treated to tiny Jasper and Fury in negative space, juxtaposed with a sequence of shots closing in on...well:

"...and then it (The Fury) incinerates his (Jasper) brain."

-Moore

Emerging from negative space on the subsequent page, The Fury casually dumps Jasper in front of the Crazy Gang. A reminder, that tension in this phase of Davis development, is followed to often by a physical comedy schtick.

The Fury is spent and collapses.

Red Queen: "Orf Wiv It's 'Ead!"

Her soon to be familiar ongoing and delightful joke, is a Lewis Carroll line and more relevant to to these proceedings an Alan Moore, not Chris Claremont spelling.

For the first time this Executioner obliges as they do.

Only, volts of electricity surge through the battle ax into the Executioner as they do. Knave comforts his shocked and failed colleague.

In silent panels (again...the best panels), Brian is up, pissed, and has his hand on The Fury's shoulder...you think a blast is coming to Brian's face, but the page change reveals Brian punching through The Fury, with primary and secondary colorful innards extracting ahead of his fist out the back.

I don't normally care for this sort of scene...but the cartooning here is not only effective, it is aesthetically appealing.

It works Alan Davis.

Brian gouges at the face, contorts the core, rips the arm off, and beats the head with it. Wires flail about.

The Fury has never looked this good...and frankly neither has Brian.

Not a word.

Now that's a superhero v monster page.

As promised, the next page has three panels that have just enough cornyness to betray the intensity...one being Opal Luna letting slip a cliché.

Shut your mouth Opal Luna. You speak to soon! You can't think like that. You can't speak words of hope like it is a possibility. It becomes improbable as they pass your lips.

Also, Davis...you failed in drawing this moment.

Her premonition is not correct. As Alan Davis regains his footing, so does Moore. In concert Moore writes:

Opal Luna narration: "I hope he's going to kill it..."

A correction from the previous panels thinking spoke allowed...leads into a close up part of The Fury and a technological emergence from organic mater...a tiny harpoon...

KTIK!

Opal Luna narration: "Because if he doesn't..."

The inset panel regains full footing for the Alans...and then delivers in it's large hosting panel...

Opal Luna narration: "...if he can't kill it..."

A line from The Fury's face flys through Brian's shoulder, the tiny harpoon emerging, Brian in agony.

Opal Luna narration: "...then it's all up to you!"

The end of Opal Luna's line, accompanies a headshot of a finally looking, now stunned Captain UK, who's expression is mouth gaping and pupils tiny in her wide eyes. Instantly iconic end to the page that stumbled out the gate, lands hard.

Again in silence, we are treated to six portrait panels alternating The Fury destroying Brian, as is his purpose, and a change and just slightly zooming in on Captain UK from horror, to tears...to rage.

Taking what is iconic and utilizing with precision.

What has been a foolish creative overreach in depicting The Fury battling on a splash page, that time with a now dead Jim Jaspers, is flipped here to Brian being passed by, an inconvenience in the space, for Linda's rage as she launches into an ill prepared Fury, who falls back on his heels.

This splash page hits hard.

This juxtaposition not how I would like, communicates something I really love.

In this moment we have tossed away that male foolery of Jasper's Warp and Brian's squareness, and for this moment, Linda has shed her timidness, for something that has been bubbling under the surface for us all.

Our hero!

And maybe, just maybe, The Alans are like...we ain't playing no more.

The page turn actually works and lands.

By panel three, Moore is speaking to her expressiveness in battle, without betraying the moment, and Linda has The Fury's spine and beating his corpse with it. Providing grace for The Fury in what looks like an actual end.

Moore:

"It starts to shriek..."

"...and for the first time in its existence, understands the conception of annihilation."

"...And gives up."

Brian gets a moment to be of use in his own story. Linda is relentless. So Brian's hand enters the frame.

Brian off panel: "Linda..."

Not perfect, but nearly, he comforts and assures her. A calming effect.

Brian: "It's dead, Linda. It's been dead for ten minutes. You killed it."

As they have a moment, and The Alans take liberty in a page that nearly unravels their achievement; by listing analogous fantasy big bads, and imperfections of art, Opal Luna quietly approached and extracts blood from Jaspers' corpse.

Promising, no end in site.

We'll see about that.

Roma, in her after a dip grab...or formal ware, cleans up the board, taking the three pieces still standing; Brian, Linda, Opal Luna. Which makes Brian note a change. Opal Luna, is perturbed, as it was over...her "plan"...Linda thinks she knows:

Linda: "Captain, I think we are about to...switch."

As they become bright light.

Teleported through a page that once gain works into a splash that is to heavily inked for my taste, but otherwise is decent enough for the intimate funeral of Merlyn in the Otherworld.

"Epilogue:"

Roma's headdress and kimono are epic, as she presents Captain Britain of Earth-616, Captain UK of what was once Earth-238, and Opal Luna Saturnyne of Earth-9 as saviors of all who gather in the Otherworld at the feet of Marlyn's corpse.

Captains; Albion, Airship-One, Britannia, Gotowar Konanegg, Commonwealth, Major Commonwealth, Angleterre, Empire, Kommandant Englander, and Kaptain Briton. Vortigen. King Arthur and...

Dane, who are amongst the six who cary the body, as many more hang their heads low.

A splash page, where everyone gets the Alan Davis on model treatment.

a funeral on Otherworld

The body disappears into oblivion.

The Captains who were cross with Brian play friend now.

Alone with Roma, finally, Linda and Brian discuss with her how things, this Otherwold, and Merlyn himself are not how they appeared to them before. As was mention previously in the chapter, this how he was, and his father before him "had many names and many faces."

Roma ask what service she can provide to them.

Brian speaks of his sister and his world, in this order. I don't know if this plays into the future, but it could be an essential detail, that Betsy is being mention to Roma in this context.

The natural order of things, "reality does not tolerate a paradox for long," is leading to repair and healing. Camps are being removed, but those caught in this will have have a long road ahead for them. Betsy lost Tom and was psychically linked when this happened, so she will need help processing this grief. She befriended someone well suited for this, and that person will be with her for a bit while she recovers as best she can.

In 1963, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko introduced in the pages of Strange Tales No. 114, Victoria Bentley. She, a sorceress, has assisted Strange, Clea, and been a neighbor to Dane. This is her 18th appearance. She apparently was in The Candlelight Dialogues.

Linda questions why Opal Luna is not with them in this moment. Roma, has already given her the gift of revenge. She has enslaved Moondragon. This is just the beginning of the reveal of Opal Luna's true nature. Roma calls her, "ruthless," which will feel like a kindness by the end. Majestrix Saturnyne is returned to her position as head of the Omniversal tyranny.

Somehow, Linda seems to be forgotten in this gift giving. However, Roma brought Brian to her...maybe she too has gotten hers prior to him.

Returned to the stones; Darkmoor: 8th September, 1983. Captains part with a kiss.

We turn from digital copies to printed TPB. I have carried it around since I was 13, in 1988.

Claremont holds this Moore work in high regard. Wouldn’t go that far, but there is a process unfolding that brings The Alan’s to recognizable generational talent by its end.

As we part ways with Alan Moore, and Steve Craddock steps in to assist, Alan Davis clearly is taking over completely, in the tradition of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, so when Craddock leaves quickly, then Mike Collins has two short stints, and, then we switch once gain to another title, Captain Britain Vol. 2, and Jaime Delano and John Tomlinson, turns into the Jaime Delano run, in the end, as it would happen on occasion from the begining of Moore's exit, Davis either writes it all, or does layouts that dictate the storytelling.

It should be noted here that at some point Chris Grill took over coloring, and then Stuart Place, with a moment of Nick Abadizs, and in the end Steve White. Title lettering had Alan Davis, Richard Starkings mostly doing that work, though Tomlinson did one. It's unclear to me when Annie Parkhouse was "the" interior letterer, but she was there at the end for sure.

At one point Noel Davis, helped towards the end with penciling and inking. In the final story of this trade paper back, Alan Davis found his inker; Mark Farmer.

When one of my father's best friends, Larry, his daughter was one of my first close friends in life, invited me down to the production of Disney Quest, and the team went out to lunch, I had an interesting conversation with head artist, Travis Charest, who talked about not trusting others to ink him. This was at the turn of the Century. I can understand now, why Alan Davis took till 1985 turned into 1986, to finally find someone to ink him. I have experemineted with someone inking me in the classroom. It is not for me. I always ink my pencils...in fact...I ink more than I pencil at this point. I get it. But I took Travis to be egotistical in that moment. My bad.

The cover for my TPB, somehow isn't ruined by the graphic design choices. I blame Alan Davis.

Claremont does the forward. It begins like this:

"Once upon a time, O best beloved - and a very, very long time ago it was, way back in the happy halcyon, innocent days before Thatcher and Reagan when some of us were a lot younger than we care to admit - Marvel Comics, in its infinite corporate wisdom, came up with the notion of producing an original series of comics for the UK market..."

-Claremont c. 1988

He's talking about the Gerold Ford and Harold Wilson Era. Who's contexts are defined by predecessors ( Nixon & Macmillan > Douglas-Home) and successors (Carter & Callaghan), and of course Thatcher & Reagan, above their own actions. And he is only a dozen years removed from this Era. However, the concept that we live in a loop...well this writing sure seems to support that.

Claremont goes on, as he tends to do, and in the end praises Moore...above all, in a comic Claremont co-created in 1976. He mentions the other writers, and like this TPB, it comics off correctly. I am about to begin the "Jaime DeLano" Era, but the TPB gives top billing to Alan Davis. Which is correct, a rare publishing.

If you are talking to me about a comic and you lead with the "writer" on crediting the cartoonists responsible...I bite my tongue from correcting you. There is the Alan Davis Captain Britain Era and then there are those who play in the sandbox he restored and expanded, with the assistance of his writers. Moore and Claremont being his most essential co-creators. Herb Trimpe and his creative assistant Claremont build the sandbox. Marcos To and their creative assistant, a hero to me, Tini Howard, are playing with Alan Davis' sand.

BAD MOON RISING

I have never loved this beginning. So if there is only one reason I am thankful for choosing the path we did here, it would be the Davis & Moore ending, provides an improved beginning to what I am use too here. I turn the pages with glee.

"March 18th 1984"

Like Batman...

...Brian overlooks London. He is in a good place, six months removed from being not great. No, Linda’s been off doing her thing. He is relying on the computer, which is also recovered, to help rebuild the estate, so Bets and Alison can live there...as they are back from a retreat with Strange's Victoria.

He is concerned about Emma, who had spent seven years caring for a holographic image, and now will be asked to accept and continue on again with the real thing.

The life of having a Manor.

"...I've got problems."

There are first world problems...and then there are 1%er problems....and then there are...what are they called...oh...actual problems. The kind you don't have the band with to label.

Narrator; a change from white to orange:

"Problems."

"Sidney Crumb has problems."

He is no Mrs. McGeary. IMHO, he made his choices.

"Sidney Crumb is a solitary man."

and now...

"...he is suddenly very, very sober."

Meggan under the influence of the full moon; my guess a consumed narrative that perpetuates her reality, but triggering the mental conditions that control her form through her mutation...is rabid in attacking Sidney.

This triggers Brian to come off his roof top and play hero, in service of Sidney against Meggan. Who embarrasses Brian in their first encounter.

This "start" has to much narration set up, for soemething that lacks visual appeal, and a context that is not relatable...and now it has a flashback that is, but it breaks up the tension and flow of the issue. We are treated to a moment with Sue and Meggan in the camp, where they continue to focus on Brian, and mention a fun connection.

Meggan's Dad, William, was there in the comic shop when Brian, Bets, ect...took on Slaymaster. And then they disucss the full moon, and how Meggan feels about it.

"I dread it!"

We do our first appearance of Meggan, as an illustration worth our focus. I like her pants.

The break in action, is a highlight and a flaw.

Brian and Meggan battle under the glow of the moon and within a construction project. Brian is completely disoriented and has been having trouble keeping track of and keeping up with Meggan. A metaphor for their life.

Brian mistakenly attacks Micky in the shadows. He and his sister Josie (no relation to the one in Hell's Kitchen). Micky’s safety pin earring is a nice touch in telling us who Micky is. They explain, who Meggan is a bit to Brian, and share that they have been watching over her, especially when she gets like this on a full moon.

Unfortunately they don't have the opportunity to clue Meggan into this, and she comes from out of nowhere to protect them from Brian, and Brian and her cause the metal beams of the construction to come tumbling down on Micky, who is crushed and stabbed to death by this.

It is in this moment that Brian is struck with self reflection and realizes, he is not actually the hero he has been thinking he is.

I may have mentioned this before, but I seem to regularly in life, and it relates to Meggan, and I suppose Brian too, here:

“Humans create narratives. Narratives create culture. Culture shapes society. Society impacts environments. Environments nurture humans and their narratives.”

-Me c. often

Meggan grew up in a culture, that is influenced by society, to the point of determining a narrative, Meggan has internalized, which through her mutation of empathic shapeshifting has manifested who she appears to be externally and internally. I am in this moment realizing, as Brian did in his moment of clarity, Meggan is a metaphor for how I see the human condition. Thus one reason she really stuck with me from go.

Brian was fed a narrative of his struggle, value and worthiness by lived experiences in cultural narratives and Merlyn’s narrative. This allowed for Brian to operate in societies believing the symbolism he wares as a mask. Disguising from himself how removed he is from being a hero to the people he claims to serve and from relative struggle they experience.

***Tea and Sympathy***

Over six pages we are treated to a domesticated scene that does more for the storytelling and our care for it, then we have had in some time, maybe this entire chapter or longer.

It hits home a bit. I mentioned earlier Bechdel and Kochalka earlier...we all live in this place. A place where, a person Erin and I know well enough, as Kochalka does too, a community member who had a son who was struggling to cling onto life for years. Now their family is exactly where Micky's family is in this story.

The Scott's, Josie and parents, Joan and Bob, are back from Micky's funeral, when family squabbles are interrupted not by tea, but by Brian, massive, at their door.

The scene plays out with Brian expressing guilt, father gushing conservative perspective of praise on Brian, Josie observing and then exploding with blame, which Brian welcomes, and Joan forgives, as Meggan emerges, to Bob's shock and Josie's welcoming.

They settle into tea, which pacifies and heals the five of them a bit, through conversation and laughter.

Bob accepts through Brian, his daughters world a bit more, though I would assume he is still happy to have Brian around as a symbol for Britain and a hero for local pride.

Joan has accepted what has happened to Micky, and is looking for Meggan and Brian to not blame themselves, as she does not. She blamed Micky a bit to much, but seems to be moving away from that.

Bob and Joan's feelings are as they are, and them changing is not much concern here. Maybe it should be more.

Josie truly cared for her brother and was in his life deeply. She is accepting of Brian here, as he hears her, and seems to have come to a place that supports her perspectives and acts as a bridge between her parents and her self, and her friend. While elevating her brother's memory.

Meggan, is in the light, has shared her story a bit more. Has said the smell of Sidney Crumb triggered her, and she admits to lack of control. A clue to work with. Brian has offered his home and services to find connections to her past.

Brian is struck by Meggan being able to remember aspects effected by the Jasper Warp. He has realized and expressed that he lost touch with local people, as he was gone in other univeres. He is focused on helping not hurting the Micky's of the this time and place. He is starting with Meggan, Josie and her family.

Of course, this being a superhero comic book, this is when unnamed orange with green face shields mahcanical hench bust in, attack, and then dispaerar. Leaving questions, a damaged home, including a massive hole in the wall, and a bewildered Bob...who as Josie had suggested when they walked in the door...really does just sit there in that chair confused by the world around him.

Joan on cue,

"tea?!"

Hah.

***In All The Old Familiar Places...***

"June 6th, 1984"

Alison Double lurks, as Bets embraces her twin, as Brian welcomes them home. Alison lurks as only the most beloved of friends are in the 80's. Before the 90's devolves into syrupy friendships.

We can't see, do to the vantage point, but I am reading this exchange as such:

Brian sincerely and with pep: "It's good to have you back, Betsy. You too, Alison. How are you? You look well.

Alison dryly, like death at your door, with sincerity: "I am very well, thank you, Brian.

She credits by name Victoria Bentley.

Emma greats Bets...

Bets: "Emma, You're..."

...and Brian has to whisper in his sister's ear: " b a c k t o n o r m a l. i' l l e x p l a i n l a t e r."

Emma has a little Jewish mother in her...correctly threatening to fatten Bets up.

Meggan, comfortable and at home, from the other room, makes Alison and Betsy aware of her presence, by yelling, enthused, about Brian being on the telly. This reveal shows the level of respect Betsy and Alison have for mental privacy. The mere fact they were taken off guard shows they are not in the habit of surveillance of minds, and have control in this moment, after Victoria's help in recovery.

Brian makes an attempt to warn them, as he tries to control his environment and the civility around him, while also protecting his sister. Which maintains how square he is, and how he would take issue with aspects of my neighborhood growing up, and about half of my families dynamics. He wouldn't do well with lots of folks in the global diaspora. But he would try, like this, to keep it to his liking.

Brian: "...but I'd better warn you, she's..."

Lucky for us, this is not actually Brian's story, despite titles.

Alison {telepathically}: "BEAUTIFUL. Like an iridescent butterfly."

Bets {telepathically...LIKE SHE IS BRIAN'S TWIN}: "WHAT?!"

On cue...

Brian: "A little unusual..."

Alison {telepathically}: "her aura..."

Brian speaks to his feelings about Meggan's diaspora energy:

"...and very excitable."

Brian makes apologies for Meggan, not his place, as they join her to watch Kim Clarke's report on the Braddock Manor, featuring an interview with Brian. Essentially, there is a cover story for the illusion of need for repair, over an actual story of less severe damage caused by combat with the Fury. The news is covering the story, because under Thatcher, it is welcome news that economic opportunity is to come from this unavailing. As Brian intends to make the estate's lands to be of use to the community and local economy.

The cover story also speaks to his absence for seven years. Traveling the world...just not getting specific about which worlds.

This is all a credit to Joan Scott, who helped Brian come to this place of local focus and responsibility. He says as much to Betsy before the end of the issue.

Brian walks Betsy through their Manor, as they catch up.

The computer is no longer actively working against them. It is working in concert with Brian. It has severed it's control over Emma, who is experiencing the loss through death, that is not a death, but a release from mental control by the computer. She has no other place to go, and as Betsy puts it, she is family. However, as cartoonists often do, we don't let the innocent elders fully aware of the contexts. Emma, is insulated from the reality that dictates her day to day. She is not afforded the agency Bets has.

Betsy has been given the tools, by way of Victoria's work with her, she needs to keep processing the fact that she was psychically linked to Tom when he died, and thus experienced death. She is aware of Jasper's Warp. Communal trauma. She is in fact quite strong telepathically. We get a hint of this here...

...when Brian is explaining about the computers solid holographic robotics, Bets asks about those orange/green henchmen, who have reappeared behind Brian...

"not again"

...Bets dispatches them, as they attack her twin. They disappear again.

A figure lingers in the shadows outside.

We are treated to a silent comics page, with vignettes of three scenes. Slaymaster using a cardboard Captain Britain for target practice. The crazy Gang breaking into someplace. Dai Thomas putting two and two together, seeming to figure Brian is Cap.

Captain Britain AKA Brian (distributed 10/76) and/or Elizabeth (distributed 11/76) Braddock, born April 23rd 1956 (mid-Boomers), have been featured nearly exclusively (Brian appears state side in Marvel Team-Up No. 65-66, X-Men No. 124, Incredible Hulk No. 250 & 279, Marvel Contest of Champions Vol 1 No. 1-2, Rom No. 65, & Captain America No. 305-307) in Marvel UK comics magazines; Captain Britain Vol 1 (The Twins), Super Spider-Man & Captain Britain (The Twins), Hulk Comic (Brian), Cap Brit Summer Special (Brian), Marvel Super-Heroes (Brian(Brian...where we jumped in with Alan Davis), Daredevils (The Twins), Mighty World of Marvel (The Twins)...

They now make their final UK exclusive appearances in Captain Britain Vol 2 (The Twins), before making soft landings state side with The Twins in New Mutants Annual Vol 1 No. 2, as Betsy finds a home in Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 No. 211, and Brian makes a second stop in Annual Vol 1 No. 11 before his home becomes Excalibur, as does Alan Davis in the initial Special.

So our exclusivity remains for just a tad bit longer.

Pictures, Puzzles, and Pawns

Dai Thomas enters to present to his colleagues, what they see as an obsession spurred by the accidental death of his wife...which he admits is an accurate description...but there are extraneous circumstances that have lead to his findings and this presentation on the history of Brian Braddock.

Leading up to The Twins birth, there is the oddity of limited records of their parents, prior to the purchase of their Manor in 1945. Records possibly lost in the war. Their brother, Jaime is not mentioned till 1948. Now known for race car driving. Sir James, a scientist, dies in an a lab accident at the Manor. Advanced for his years, Brian enters graduate school in 1976, and then the sciences. He is perfectly ordinary, one of the "quiet ones," so it seems. SO naturally, he is a possible Captain Britain.

As Dai continues to present pieces that fit together, Bets razes her twin, and then he too presents the past, as the cartooning literally uses pieces of a puzzle to fit things together. Most of which we know. In the end Dai is dismissed with a compliment and then an order to take no further action. The cycle of anti-superhero sentiment put on pause, as it's crosshairs linger on Brian once again.

Knave: "Why do we have to walk home?"

Jester: "The Taxi Driver wanted paper-pounds to bring us this way. We don't have any."

Knave: "We could have gotten some out of the safe only YOU could not open it. What good is it being criminals if we don't know HOW to do crimes...?"

Dwayne in his debut: "Awright, you weirdos..."

Delano's dialogue is a joy, and so is Davis art. Dwayne's knife seems to fail in overcompensation.

***LAW & DISORDER***

Dwayne & Shirl's punk "gang" are faced with being outmatched and somehow out smarted. Dwayne, nearly looses his head, and they defiantly lost their loose change, as Crazy Gang leaves em with wiv tis ead.

Knave is relentless in his critique of their circumstances. Jester, who may be the only one who understands the critique, is exhausted and offended.

They are squatters in a building that looks worse than the crack house I use to live across from. Jester frustrated takes off to poke his creepy clown face outside the window of their neighbors, so he can ketch what they are watching on the telly. Where he learns an idea.

The Crazy Gang attacks an armored car...Knave even uses a different car to help break in. Only issue is Tweedledope uses petrol spilt from the car to also get in, and blows up the cars and the money.

Knave's point of needing a brain in their gang is gaining momentum.

In the midst of if this we return to the life and times of Dai, who is becoming aquatinted with Gabriel, the tall one, and Michael, the short one, from Resources Control Executive, R.C.X. Who have inherited the workload of Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies, S.T.R.I.K.E, the UK's S.H.I.E.L.D, and was once home to both Vixen (who hired Slaymaster) and the Psi Division (Betsy, Tom, Alison, etc...)...so here we are with RCX who are Gabe and Mike.

Gabe: "Agent Michael and I have complete authority in all matters concerning super-beings...have assumed the function of that somewhat heavy-handed agency STRIKE."

Mike: "Agent Gabriel and myself are part of a team of specialists. We are ghost gorillas..."

Gabe: "...the world is more fluid now. We have more subtle methods. Our stragies are oblique."

Mike: "...we must function in isolation. There must be no interference from your men Thomas.”

Jester and Knave pine for the leadership of Jasper and wonder what ever happened to him and their old Earth. While Tweedledope builds out of junk and vermin his iconic Rat Chariot.

Bets and Brian in between scenes have tea and do exactly what we use to do. We would go out after serving tea and coffee, and before getting drinks, we would read the personals to each other. They were hilarious.

Bets: "Here's a strange one. Listen - 'Keen criminals require clever leaders. Contact the Crazy Gang."

Brian simply can't believe it.

He should.

The figure who has been lurking outside windows (not Jester), is outside Crazy Gangs. It's been obvious who for some time. It is "Caterpillars?!"

The scene from Wonderland expands...as obviously Slaymaster has delivered a brick wrapped collaged message of leadership to the back of the head of the Red Queen through the window.

Jester tells the cabie everything...he is so excited.

I simply enjoy the art in these pages...something that will not end it seams.

Oh the Orange and Green henching Mastrex Saturnyne, who has gone full fascist garb. They have failed Opal Luna, and she is giving the contract to a more reliable group. These fools are headed to the Antarctic Strife Zone.

Opal Luna summons Gatecrasher's Technet.

Crazy Gang’s leadership has resulted in legit crimes, and now Brian is off to confront them…as the Gang is so thankful…Brian bust in on the scene and we have the reveal that has been obvious…YES…Slaymaster is back.

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

Slaymaster has wrapped up and delivered by hand Brian to Vixen, who’s government position has been replaced by RCX, but being a dominatrix, she still acts with authority. Her appearance is always clownish, and here she is in the middle of cultural appropriation from across the pond. Brian is now placed at her feet.

There has been a more subtle conversation on Slaymaster's Islamic culture. Here, Vixen gets more to the point.

Slaymaster is given a few panels to add detail to his mastering of Brian, which includes the moment when Slaymaster reveals, he was posing as a character from Alice's world, and then lets go his still new henchmen...the Crazy Gang. A betrayal.

Vixen wonders aloud if this is a mistake. I am agreeing with Vixen...it feels icky.

Slaymaster is about as dense as Brian. He literally thought he could turn Brian in his costume over to Vixen, and she would acquiesce to a partnership in which he controls the suit. He handed her everything in the bargain, and then began to bargain. Vixen doesn't suffer a fool...unless they are her cuck.

Vixen is now dressed as Bets in sheer evening ware, and because her entire vibe is kink, she confronts Bets naked and constrained twin to taunt him.

While, Vixen's hench' Jools & Simon, are no match for an irritated Slaymaster. Taking them out, he creeps through her operation, which is pulls from aesthetically unappealing places, and refines them into a consistent design that feels on par and scale with Star Wars and Robotech. So unlike Satrunyne's most recent hench..Vixen's works.

Speaking of, we get a three panel introduction to a top ten, probably top five Marvel character, for me. Opal Luna's new hire and reason I was dancing a jig earlier:

Gatecrasher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Which means we also get Marvel's Salacious B. Crumb, Yap, who provides more kink...as there simply is never enough in Mutant stories.

A third Technet, a ball, named Pandora makes their debut as well.

Gatecrasher time!

But this was just a teasing moment.

After Slaymaster breaks another neck in an Alan Davis longhsot panel...that I will simply remind us all...is now part of pages of panels that simply work on the highest level...we are treated to ten panels of juxtaposed panels straddling two back to back pages that alternate with narrative alignment between Vixen and her science guy analyzing the costumes tec and Slaymaster acquiring and putting on the costume...no longer Alice's caterpillar style, and full Captain Britain Crop. We learn:

The microcircuitry making the fabric of Brian's costume, a machine, is beyond terrestrial analysis (like a plot thread in Peacemaker); it molds to the wearers form; is like lens that amplifies the wearers own abilities; creates a personal forcefield like Skids; allows for flight like Superman; enhancing strength, but pain is still felt.

It is now Slaymaster who is confronting Brian, still retrained and naked. He wants more information on the suit. Brian suggests the helmet is the key.

Vixen is now gathering her hench, as the suit is no longer in her possession, and the scientist reveals, the helmet is the key.

Brian has out maneuvered them. With the helmet on Slaymaster, has put on a machine that is controled by Brian's mind. Brian stops him from being hit. Is able to release himself, and then use the suit on Slaymaster to toss Slaymaster around the room.

Brian gets dressed in the suit. Which of course is being watched by Vixen...the voyeur.

She floods the space and Brian flows to the surface and the street, where a massive and contorted colorful Sidney Crumb lurks.

Brian is stunned...and I am back to wondering what Davis is doing aesthetically.

In...

SIDS STORY

Our old friend Sidney, a troubled soul, attacked by Meggan, for his smell and the full moon made her feral. An event that lead to Meggan's friend, Micky's death, an intentional Brian, and a budding bond between Brian and Meggan...Sidney now appears, full circle, as a tragic monster tale.

We get glimpses of what may have been a smell, grow into a multi colored monster, with Sidney's abused life trapped inside it, as it wonders and kills, even melts in horror members of his community.

As Yap struggling to keep track of Brian, is finally able to locate him, after Brian slushes around London's under belly in a wave of escape from Vixen and Slaymaster.

All while Roma, anxiously, observes, and repress the desire to interfere, as her father would have. Blaming herself for helping bring the pieces together that still haunt Brian...she remains hands off, but knows she is to focused on this individual. She has a all the other souls to consider.

These vignettes woven in Sidney's Story of torment, eventually ends with Brian and Sid confronting each other, and Brian standing over a colorful pool of melted Sid in the end.

Tactical Police Captain Moden: "That's sorted that out then..."

Brian: "What?.."

Moden: "You did it Captain. You just smeared it into the pavement. We won!"

Brian: "Did we?"

Brian flys off, and just like that is blasted from the sky. The lump of Brian rises up to face Technet: Gatecrasher, Yap, Pandora, our old friends Fascination and Ringtoss, and new friends Ferro, Elmo, Paradox, and...

Brian: "Fascination...? Legion...? What does Special Executive want with me now...?"

Not Legion, Thug: "Not Legion, Kaptain...Not me. That's another brother...and Fascination? She's a friend now...there is no Special Executive...NOT YET...Wardog won't even be whelped for another hundred years. And Cobweb is everywhere. We are far more senior elite...Gatecrasher's Technet!"

Gatcrasher: "...You have the honour to be our prisoner."

I wish I could (and maybe its time I do...or at least should) embrace the terms "cartoonish" "comic booky." However, most folks mean this as a diminishing description of something that is zany, or whatever. The problem being, cartoonists and comics, wile have strong roots in this sentiment through derivation and practice, are full spectrum practices and mediums. We get real here. We get dark. We are tragedy and comedy. We are balanced. Cartoonists. Comics.

Even, or perhaps especially, Alan Davis.

DOUBLE GAME

Roma had been feeling anxiety, and expressed guilt. She mentioned that she had brought them together at Merlyn's funeral. Well, having forgotten what happened next, I was not sure at all who she was refering to. And I was jumping to conclusions, with regard to more familiar characters to us. We are about to learn how wrong I was, and how easily I forget.

Brian is racing home...apparently free from Technet.

Brian enters into the room, where Bets is lounging, reading, having tea, in her home. Her twin doesn't look quite as he should to us. She notices the look. She is so considerate...unlike Chuck...and once again has her telepathic guard down. Brian brakes in through the window of his home...to find his twin Bets...and his twin...Brian!?!

Things don't go like it would for Peters. These are Brians.

*Steve Ditko, Stan Lee, Phil Babet, Al Bertino, & Lin Carter’s Spider-Man*

It's on like...

Emma and Alison, upstairs look down at the combustion that is reverberating through the Manor, as Meggan has leaped from their side and swoops down to assist. Did I mention she is a G D HERO!

As she asks Betsy what's up...she is taken out by Gatecrasher...from out of nowhere...which is kinda Gatecrasher's move.

Yap is able to sense Bets powers, and instructs Elmo to power dampen her...like Leech. Gatecrasher asks for a full accounting from Yap and then has Fascination bring them all to be present.

Bets and Emma, treat this as being a very British situation...demanding formal curtesy...which Gatecrasher obliges with in language...not action...blaming an open door.

The banter carries on, as the two Brians appear and Betsy is updated by Gatecrasher...there are so many Brians.

The art seems to indicate...nobody wants this flashback to catch the other characters up...but here we are...and now I am moving on.

Technet had realized it was the wrong Brian...and had let 616 go, as RCX happen to observing and tracking it all.

As the Brian's fight, and the Manor catchates up on the story...RCX is back in London...trying to gage what happened when everyone teleported away to the Manor. Dai is getting in their way.

The Brian who appears to be Brian from 616, is not able to be confirmed by Betsy telepathicaly. So Alison does it. Technet takes the other Brian...I think it is safe to identify as Byron Bra-Dhok AKA Kaptain Briton of Earth-794...he is a fascist counter part to Mastrex Sat-Yr-Nin.

The depart.

Brian takes his twin upstairs...

...and sike...promised dark...this is not Brian-616...it is Brian-794...and he goes from comforting Bets...to what looks like the beginning of an assault.

I don't expect Women in Refrigerators author, our community member, comics writing legend, Gail Simone is fan of this scene...and I am not at all comfortable with it...but I am not comfortable ignoring it in Bets story.

Annie Parkhouse has been a better letterer than I. However, these choices she makes with Yap's dialogue has been pulling me out of the story. A reminder of her power as a cartoonist.

This entire chapter, years of cartooning through multiple hands, principally Alan Davis, have been best when tight and refined. The story has seldom felt this, but in this moment they seem to be pulled tautly together as a comic, mostly.

It feels great, while everything as subject is abhorrent. A reminder of the power of comics.

A Long Way From Home

In an iconic moment, Brian of Earth-616 awakes, aware his is out of time and space, and pulls back the curtain to reveal to us, Earth-794. A manicured fascist Britain.

The juxtaposed next page, inverts the panels balance of this initial page and flips it, so that not three panels at the top, but a longshot on the bottom feels subordinate to the rest of the page above, which is no longer a single image, but flexing sequential art.

These longshot panels running across the bottom continue our focus on Earth-616, in a bedroom, in Braddock Manor, between Betsy and her attacker, Byron of Earth-794...this continues till the end of the issue.

The bulk of cartooning on these pages maintain our exploration of Earth-794.

Brian recounts defeat to Byron, and utters Betsy's name.

Opal Luna interrupts her guest, speaks jealously of any Betsy and places Brian back to sleep with a series of bowls emitting a gas.

Brian awakes to redress as Kaptain Briton.

Opal Luna and the Technet reconvine, where Opal Luna lavishes them with compliment on a job well done, and an invitation to a facist party. Gatecrasher, who really is one of my favorites, rejects one of my least favorite opportunities and makes clear why in paradox I trust and find love:

Gatecrasher: "...Whilst my profession sometimes involves carnage that may astound you, I do not crave it.. Your party must jog along without us."

Brian, who is still working out why Opal Luna is being like this, accompanies to the Masterex overview of her parties fascist celebration of her world view and the carnage which passes as entertainment.

Brian concludes this is not his Opal Luna.

He flys off to stop Gatecrasher and Techent's exit, trying to convince her, he is not Byron. Gatecrasher asks him the first words she said to him.

Brian: "...honoured to be your prisoner."

Satisfied with truth, but meh...on Brians abilities, they join to take on a world of fascists. Leading to an iconic panel of Technet and Brian as Byron fighting while Gatecrasher says:

"**HIT IT!**"

Nice work Annie.

Overwhelmed by numbers, Gatecrasher has Pandora spray the space with a green substance that simply melts away everyone attacking them.

As Technet uses vacuums from Pandora to suck up the death ooze, Opal Luna stands on a pile of death and pleads to Brian...still not clear on Byron.

This all happens as one panel at a time bellow, Betsy is attacked by Byron and then defends her self and uses her mutant telepathic ability to murder her attacker in self defense. Leaving us with two panels of her face being haunted in success, and two his mangled existence and her exhausted by it all.

THINGS FALL APART

The solid light hologram from of Gary Friedrich & Herb Trimpe's Mastermind, not Lee & Kirby's, has witnessed enough from these humanoids, and chooses this moment to put his foot down and take over the ins and outs of Braddock Manor.

A frightening and potentially prophetic thing to reread in 2026.

Gatecrasher, follows through with, delivering Brian back to Earth-616, one hour after he had left...why they couldn't simply have him save Betsy from the trauma she has just endured...!!?! Brian teleports into her chambers, as Meggan successfully brakes into her chambers form the hallway where she and Alison had been struggling to help, as Alison had her own physic connection with what was happening, and Meggan could simply hear. This all happening as Bets is at the initial stage of grappling with what she has done, and the mangled, boiled, and oozing corpse of Byron lays there.

Brian does some remarcibly, Brian things here. He tries to comfort his sister after she literially just killed in a moment of trauma, his likeness. When asked if he is him, by Meggan, he simply provides his word...and bizarrely...a reveal of her character...she accepts it as face value and moves on...and then in seemingly no reflection at all...Meggan asks what they do now...and Brian says he will have drink...and then because he has run out of archs...he will have another.

This is the path to far for Meggan, who is still present...and wonders about the body. However, in this moment Mastermind enters the scene...and makes clear...they are to follow his directive and he can handle this from here.

The scene changes here, that begins to alternate with this one, but for our purposes...I'll circle back.

Brian, maybe his two drinks in, attempts to comfort his sister, but she is as

Brian is perhaps his two drinks in, as he an Bets sit and he continues to try and comfort his twin. She just can't. He is Byron from this world. Mastermind steps in to be like, 'bro, not the time.'

Brian is drunken human and snippy it their computerized sibling. Which I am realizing here, Mastermind is. A fourth Braddock child.

Mastermind continues on the concerns of inefficiencies and his siblings inability to see the dangers that lurk without some sober and informed control in steady hands. Bets is open to this, but has clarifying questions of why their sibling refers to them as units. The explanation doesn't satisfy me, but it's reveal is shocking to the twins, and thus we move passed this onto another subject.

Yes, James Braddock Sr. used an organic based spore to create Mastermind the AI they are conversing with, and yes the spore he used was a contamination in this spore, that Brian eradicated, curing Mastermind. But the entire reason for all of this was James Sr. was a member of Merlyn's Captain Britain Corps, before the twins and their brother James Jr. was born...and like Joe Shuster & Jerry Siegel's Superman...and in many ways like Cory Walker, Ryan Ottley, and Robert Kirkman's Omni-Man, James Sr. is from another planet; his is from Otherworld. James Jr. and the Twins are half alien...but Bets is still a mutant. The powers Brian posses are alien/magic from his father, not a mutation...and the magic/tec of the suit amplifies them.

This has blown the twins minds.

Meggan is hiding and witnessing all this.

Bets is realizing and siding with Mastermind...her brother is not at all equipped to run the Manor, etc...and her alarm bells are not what Brian's are in his state of mind. She can see a Mastermind that is of use.

I am not at all trusting of anyone here...but I am here for Bets...soooooo.

Their concern shifts to Emma...she can't work with Mastermind...at least not like this. So Mastermind shifts form into Jeeves...not to be confused with Jarvis.

Brian doesn't trust this...Jeeves...and doesn't want to argue with Bets...who sees her brother as shortsighted.

As this was playing out, we got an introduction to a prison, where RCX had been housing children under their care, and like Chuck...Gabriel, Michael...and maybe someone call Raphael...have a use for them...to fight.

These children are wonderful. They number over one hundred. They are called as group Warpies. They date back to the Jasper Warp of course. We focus on a group called Cherubim; Lump, Quill, Fern, Giggles, AC-DC and Cherubim Whirlwind. Sterilize and Lou Reed kept them under control...about 70%.

Our old friend Linda McQuillan is there as a "photographer," but whatever she had planned is soon undone, as Gabriel and Michael expose who she is quickly and convince her to come along for a ride as Captain UK. As RCX is convinced the government is set to fall into coup, and they use the innocence of the children to convince Linda, that they must bring them to Brian's gate to convince him to join with them and become a symbol to protect their interests and save the UK again.

As this moves forward, Meggan is in her own mind about the situations unfolding and her growing bond to Brian. Her empathic powers are bringing her closer to him. He is drunk, on the roof of the Manor, in his feels, melancholy and romantic in the nostalgic and artistic sense. Meggan approaches and it becomes clear they are having a moment. Their first...when Jeeves intervenes to announce the arrival of strangers at the gate. Meggan and Brian are bonding and primed for a fight, as Brian is in his state...Jarvis recognizes this and:

"I advise caution."

...is uttered as the leap to action from the roof.

CHILDHOOD'S END

A bit on the nose and on theme. Another good paradox.

I don't know what I am looking at here. Other than Gabe and Mike escorting a blindfolded Linda, into a field of monsters, that seems to be an illusion of sorts. And then it morphs into the knocker on Brian & Bets door. A hologram that is produced by Jeeves, I guess. Not exactly what was being presented to the community a few beats ago.

Pleasantries are exchanged as Jeeves welcomes them in...Linda a pleasant surprise reveal to Brian. Bets bumps into Gabe...who she new as Mathew from their STRIKE days.

So RCX makes its pitch, and Brian is resistant through out, as Bets and Linda try and help convince him.

The sticking point is, everyone but Brian in the room is concerned with the bigotry within the UK, and Brian is concerned about manipulation of free will.

This classic and frankly present issue at the heart of whiteness struggles to hear the rest of the world's diverse struggles is playing out in this scene...

...as Meggan, in talking with Alison…but kinda on her won, in her own history and sense of duty...comes to the rescue of the Warpies (she thinks...and perhaps so...) and releases them from the van...as inside, Brian is discovering these children are being used as manipulation to gain his support...which of course plays into his rigidness...and makes clear everyone else has been present an he has not.

As the Warpies take off into the grounds...Meggan in a tornado they form, emerges on model with the form we know her to be (mostly) going forward, a form that is essentially a balance of Brian's ideals and her own self worth. All driven by her empathy and feelings. It is the Meggan, I got to know...the one I, as middle school boy was down with, as my own childhood was transitioning out.

We are treated to a rundown on some of the Warpies. Cherub Whirlwind had created the tornado. Giggles manipulates light patterns. Quill is the animalisltic brawler. They refer to Fern, as the groups, Tar Baby...it live their design, and call the hair, not tar, they produce as, Vascular Cryptogram. AC-DC are twins as you think they would be...also a sleak design. Lump becomes the issue for most of the adults, as they form nightmares...and we are treated to old haunts from this chapter.

Bets tries to be the voice of reason...they are just children. As...

WINDS OF CHANGE

...plays out, in a triggered battle atmosphere.

Superhero comics. Sigh.

As Linda, Bets and Brian are outside with Warpies, all but Meggan, head with Jeeves to the basement.

Meggan having exited through the top of Cherub Whirlwind's tornado, reenters it and slams to the ground...creating an earth shaking noise that brings all to the ground to witness her new appearance.

Stunning all, but Alison, who always saw her "potential." Brian most of all is caught off guard by all this...and needs once again...an explanation.

She accidentally nocked out the Cherub Whirlwind, and must remind folks...she had never been superhumanly strong before.

Betsy is having second thoughts...as they are suddenly about to house over a hundred mutants.

She is not feeling Gabe at the moment...wants him and them to leave...a little late to side with her brother.

But the children are too cute.

We are treated to beautiful and endearingly humorous scenes...of Warpies disrupting Brian's day to day life.

Brian and Meggan become closer. As Jeeves and RCX begin to push him out of influence and plot to put a "female" Captain Britain in place, as their symbol and source for stability and control. This as Meggan, the avid TV consumers, announces that Jaime (James Jr.) is on the telly...and then the phone rings. Jamie needs help.

I am not sure of the actual creation and release dates on these issues...but the publishing date which is some bit later, puts this in the Fall of 1985. For anyone wondering...we absolutely know better, but like 2026, fail when it comes to working within narratives that attempt to address bigotry. The utility of it ends up exploitative, problematic and unhelpful. Intentions being what they are. When you don't get it, when it is not yours...it gets messy.

Some narrative context:

On the heels of Ororo returning from Africa, as she is besting Scott to head the X-Men...so after she heads the Morlocks...and after Kitty says what she said. We get a story, not from Claremont, but his very soon to be partner Alan Davis...and we are once again...in Africa...but in the contexts of British colonization there, and the depiction of new fictional characters, Dr. Crocodile AKA Joshua N'Dingi, Witch Woman AKA Kura, and storytelling that depicts slavery...frankly...I don't trust these people with this story.

AFRICAN NIGHTMARE

The storytelling is muddled here. It tries to use nightmare to reveal truth. I can't help but feel it is a vehicle to excuse Brian, as an innocent. For it has Jaimie, a captive of justice...there are so many manipulations from Jeeves, to RCX, to Jaime here, that we are to believe the tragedies Joshua experience are somehow a path to inoculate Brian from sins of Bigotry. In this telling, we get our first hint at how problematic Meggan can be. She shifts shape into a Lion, but also is able to assimilate and colonize the local languages and customs, insulating Brian from making his normal errors of judgment...and perpetuating the colonization that frankly Meggan's powers are a cheat code to get into.

It ends with a Joshua in an honorable place and the perpetuators of sin mentioned as so in context...but how we got there, seems not right...and it leaves us unsteady and nasty.

RCX, Jaime, Jeeves, Brian, Meggan are all problems...and Joshua is set up.

It seems like Davis is on a journey through culture...a trope for comics that is known worldwide through Tintin. Now we are back at the Manor, only, Meggan has discovered a Russian narrative, that brings up Egyptian, Peruvian and other cultures. The House of Baba Yaga is a place for Brian and Meggan to turn a make out session into a horror story. Which is an 80's tradition of sorts.

BLOOP

We are in Peruvian pyramids of the XIVth century and the pages of ***Alarms and Excursions***, an excuse to play with our friend the Technets. So my cultural guard is down.

We are treated, just before an earthquake is set to destroy them all...to a delightful series of quirky trickery into an equally delightful telling of misadventures, as told by the paradoxical queen, Gatecrasher, who had...well I'll actually have Brian sum this up:

Brian: "...Basically, what you're saying is that, through arrogance and ineptitude, you've blundered into disaster and turned all your friends against you. Yes?"

I takes one to know one.

Yap: "not me, Mother."

From the waterfall she is trapped in when Brian asks what should he do here...

Gatecrasher: "You should show sympathy..."

I forgot he is being extorted to repay what Gatecrasher says he owes her after she kidnapped him previously...a debt paid and all that...

Oh and there is some sort of majic Incan remedy to her being trapped there...honestly...sometimes it really is best to just read the comic.

I recommend it...cautiously.

Brian does so...but it was not without its own adventures, and a lurking Special Executive team.

All saved, as the earthquake just barley misses them. Gatecrasher tries and recruit Meggan...who dismisses a real opportunity to be an excellent comic. Our loss.

Brian and Meggan are returned home, just in time to witness the best sighting in this chapter...Linda as Captain UK, and the NEW Captain Britain AKA our Betsy flying off together above...which causes Brian to pull a Peter Parker and crumple up his mask and leaving it on the grounds to the last panel of the issue.

I am in this moment wanting to rush...and frankly am...considering the pace I have taken in this chapter...which is again from 1981-1986...and this moment really should not be rushed...are as I am rediscovering...should have not been rushed.

I suspect plans were afoot, that Alan Davis may have understood. Betsy was about to move on...and so was he. Brian had been standing in the way for some time...not that there wasn't a place for him...but this really is no longer his story. Thankfully.

The problem is, in doing so, they have not allowed Betsy her proper moment here. I don't think she gets it till our friend Tini Howard is afforded the opportunity to help facilitate a healing for Betsy the brings this chapters abrupt ending to a place of satisfaction in 2019's Excalibur. But Tini addresses two issues for Betsy's story...the second one, I am here to help make simple decades before Tini cleans it up officially...the second half of "to me my ❌-Men" has this in mind.

Here in It's Hard To Be Hero... a longer story is suffocated and can't properly breath. The pacing is disjointed and abrupt. The art is gestural and engaging on a high level...which frustrates me to no end on what could have been...if only the ❌-Men were not coming to call so soon.

In twelve pages, where every panel feels like a lifetime of photos dumped out of a shoe box and landed on the floor, Bets is reluctantly convinced by RCX to take up her twins persona, as Captain Britain and she and Linda form a buddy couple caper team that fights crime. Where Vixen brings an excellently costumed Slaymaster to Bets' crosshairs and in a horrific scene, reminding us of the encounter with Byron, Bets struggles with him, as Meggan and Brian make their new life of normal folks in love at a lighthouse (take note).

As Brian is thinking his suit was more a crutch than an amplifier, Brian has a twin/telepathic moment and is connected to the strike Slaymaster lays on Bets. He flys off, which leave Meggan feeling abandoned...and saves his sister...as he comforts her, Slaymasters belittles her as an advisory...enraging Brian...who murders him viscously as Slaymaster taunts him for being honorable, sanctimonious...to weak to do so.

These scenes are powerful...but I stand by my take...Betsy deserved time here.

Brian is not done. He lays blame at the feet of RCX and Jeeves, as he holds his twin in his arms at the door of thier Manor.

He returns to the lighthouse and Meggan, as Captain Britain.

***SHOULD AULD AQUAINTANCE...***

As we exit this series and jump once again to another title (eventually)...Dai Thomas comes to the lighthouse door, where he reveals he knows who Brian is...and they are far from pleasant to each other (refreshing)...but Dai's hat in hand...is able to ask for help from Brian...as there are murders uniquely suited to Brian's help in solving.

Roma comes for Linda, who as an anomaly on 616, is helping decay it...and she must join her.

As Meggan confuses Dai with her shapeshifting...and they awkwardly play detective get up with Brian...who looks ridiculous as one.

As for Braddock Manor, it is Christmas and RCX, the Warppies, have moved in with Bets (who is healing well), Emma and Jeeves. A question by Mike on why Emma remains there is brought to Jeeves...and the the answer is simple...she has not more than a year to live and their time together has created a bond of love for the AI.

The comic alternates between single page scenes and eventually ends with panels.

Linda and her not dead husband take out facist Opal Luna.

Brian and Meggan brake some crime ring, undercover...which has a proto Brock Samson Venture Bro feel...hang with Dai...and romance at the lighthouse.

Jarves makes clear to RCX who is in charge...and that he an Emma need a vaction.

Bets and Gabe are talking marriage...wait...what!?!

Next: Dazzler*

*OH COME ON NOW!!?!

Punch Up: “To Me My ❌-Men”

Ben Cohen*
Jericho, VT
© 1975-2026

* The Ben Cohen originating from Jamestown, Boulder County, CO, USA; Raised in the Bay & Trained in Savannah.

Punch Up: “To Me My ❌-Men”